The Four Chapter 9

IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"Have a seat Andrew," Romulus gestured to the couch. Andrew sat down. "Would you like a soda?"
"Sure," Andrew said. "I'll take purple berry please."
"A good choice Andrew, if you don't mind my saying so." Romulus went over to the replicator. He returned with two glasses of purple berry and a bowl of chips. "Remember when we were kids, and we used to just guzzle this stuff down?"
Andrew nodded, "Our parents got so frustrated. They kept telling us there was nothing healthy in it. It's a wonder we didn't get sick of it long ago."
Romulus handed Andrew one glass, and took a long gulp from the other. "Ah, you can never get sick of this, even if it did get me into trouble a few times."
Andrew remembered what he was talking about. Mars, Romulus' dad, had actually followed Romulus around the city to make sure he didn't drink any purple berry. Romulus, even as a young child, was quite clever and had some ingenious ways of out witting his father. Not all of them worked, but the boys were laughing about it for many years afterwards, until the invasion. After Mars and Rhea were killed, everything concerning them became an avoided conversation topic.
Both Romulus and Remus seemed to handle the deaths pretty well. It had been painful at first, but now they were able to talk about it quite freely. Andrew had never lost anyone real close to him, not even in the invasion. He could only speculate as to what it felt like, but it had been over a year since Romulus had shown any kind of grief over the death. Remus wasn't quite the same. You could still see the sorrow in his eyes every time someone mentioned their parents.
"These chips aren't bad either," Romulus said, snapping Andrew's mind back into the present."
Andrew tried one. "These are pretty good. What kind are they?"
"Zlaka. There Nathorian in origin, but not too popular among us Watchers."
Andrew took another chip. "I can't imagine why. They taste pretty good to me."
"I can't figure it out either. Listen, thanks for coming over. I had a really great time running this afternoon."
"No problem, we got to stay in shape somehow. The big marathon is only six months away."
"We'll be ready for it." Romulus cleared his throat, somewhat nervously. "Actually there's another reason I asked you over."
"Oh no, does this have anything to do with Marram?"
"I want to talk to you about the future of the Kalka project, yes."
Andrew quickly rose out of his seat. This is between you and Remus. I don't want to get in the middle of it."
"Now hold on a sec. This is not between me and Remus, this is between the four of us. Eventually, your going to have to make a decision on this thing one way or the other. I know things got a little heated yesterday, so I thought we could have a nice calm conversation, just the two of us. We can either talk now, or we can talk at the meeting, with everyone else there. I just want a chance to tell you what I think, and why I think it, without Remus and Julius getting all upset. Then you can respond to it." Andrew looked hesitant. "Come on, sit down," Romulus invited.
Andrew slowly sat down. "Can't I just remain undecided?" he pleaded.
"Well, if that's what you really want to do. But why don't you at least here me out first, before you resign yourself to being neutral."
The idea seemed harmless enough to Andrew. "Sounds fair. Alright, go ahead."
Romulus smiled. "Good man. Now, before I start I want to assure you that I understand why Remus and Julius think the way they do. Their concerns are legitimate, and I'm not making light of their opinion. Whatever else I may say, don't forget that.
"A couple years ago, we had a president who thought much the same way they do. The ends justify the means. If innocent people suffer so that Marram's power is weakened, so be it. You know the story as well as I do, Jistap sent Sulla to attack Marram, and Sulla did. He destroyed the main cities, killing innocent civilians. In fact, very few Marram soldiers died that day, but a whole lot of ordinary people did. Is that right?"
"Of course not," Andrew answered.
"Of course not," Romulus repeated. "Just about everyone in the city will give you the same answer. Even if we asked Julius and Remus, they would probably have the same answer. Now I hope you can see that the issue then, and the issue now are strikingly similar. It's not the Marramiane soldier that is suffering from this famine. Marram takes good care of it's soldiers. The soldiers are all well fed, the government makes sure they have the best of all the food. The common people, on the other hand, are not so lucky. They are the ones that are suffering, they are the ones I will help, if you let me."
Romulus pressed a couple buttons, and the monitor he had was filled with pictures of starving men, woman and children. "These photos aren't from Kalka Andrew. These are images taken today from Marram. Well you look at them, let me remind you of something else. This famine in Marram could have been easily avoided. The crops Marram has in an average year are enough to cut this famine down considerably. Do you know what happened to most of the excess food Marram had been saving three years ago? That's right, Sulla destroyed it. But that in itself wouldn't have been so bad, had Sulla also not dethroned Azom, starting a civil war. In this war, starvation was used heavily as a war tactic. Food supplies were cut off from towns, crops were burned. It all ended half a year ago, when Palzo finally gained the throne, but the damage was all ready done. We caused this famine, now we have duty to set things right again. Because if we don't, all those deaths are on the Watchers' heads." Romulus paused for impact before adding, "Am I getting this across?"
Andrew nodded. "But what about the wars you'll cause?" he asked.
"You mean by giving Marram food. Andrew, if Marram is set on war there's nothing we can do to stop it. In five years, when they're recovered from the famine, they'll begin war again. If we leave them alone, they'll start destruction anyway. The only thing we can do is show them compassion, and hope it catches on. Here, let me put it this way-"


Remus and Julius were not surprised to see Cherry answer the door after they rung Andrew's door bell. Cherry often hung out at Andrew's house. Cherry was seventeen, she still lived with her parents. Since she and Andrew got along fairly well, she often used his house as a place to escape from her parents, and even invited friends over. Andrew never protested.
"Hi Cherry, how's it going?" Remus asked.
"Good," Cherry responded, in a tone that said 'I've got better things to do than talk to my brother's friends.'
Remus picked up the hint. "Can we talk to Andrew please?"
"He's at Romulus' house."
"What?"
"He's been there all evening. I can tell him you stopped by if you want."
Remus didn't answer, but turned outraged to Julius. "Fuck, I knew it."