The New Era Chapter 12

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Contact! After almost a whole day of being ignored, Hans persistence was rewarded. Gaius had finally responded to his attempts at communication. Gaius had picked up his computer pad and answered the hail.
Gaius' face filled Hans monitor. Hans was nervous. He had never done any real negotiating before, not with stakes this high. To his right and his left, out of Gaius' view, Hans had several advisors waiting to help him.
Speaking in a soft voice, Hans tried to keep calm. "Hello Gaius, nice to see you again."
"What do you want Hans?"
Hans swallowed, so far not too good. "I just want to talk to you. We're all watching you very closely here at the city."
"I bet you are."
"Gaius, you don't have to do this. Just surrender to Pericula and everything's going to be okay."
"You just don't get it do you Hans. You Watchers just think you can get your jollies by screwing around with me. Now that I have the advantage, you want to act like your my best friend again. Jistap humiliated me, and now you want me to just surrender."
"Jistap is dead. Everything's going to be okay."
"You're a fool if that's what you think Hans."
Bakes stormed into the room. "Hans, move over." Hans obeyed, and Bakes went in front of the monitor. "Alright, now you listen to me Gaius! You'll get no pleasure from hearing me try and sweet talk you! You stop this right now or you're a dead man!"
Gaius laughed. "Indeed Bakes, what are you going to do to me?"
"You don't want to know. This is your last chance. When I get those doors open you'll wish you were never born."
Gaius laughed even harder. "When you get those doors open? Don't you mean, if you get those doors open? In fact, I'm betting those doors will never get opened."
Bakes face grew bright red with anger. He shouted in fury. "You better hope they don't, because if they do you'll learn a whole different definition of humiliation."
The smile vanished from Gaius' face. "Bakes your a fool and a lousy negotiator. You should have followed Hans example. Now you've gotten me angry. You just don't seem to understand that I hold all the cards, do you? Perhaps it's time for a little demonstration."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just watch me, you'll find out." Gaius turned off his computer pad, the monitor went blank. Hans buried his head in his head. "Some job I did on negotiating," he thought.
Bakes struck the table with his fist so hard, those standing around him were afraid he would break his hand. "Damn! He's crazy enough to do something disastrous."
"Any luck on the doors?" asked Hans.
"Not yet, but I'm not giving up. I guess I better get back to work." Bakes left the room, moving slowly.
Hans stared blankly at the monitor. He knew his job was to keep monitoring both Gaius and Pericula's movements, but he felt too worn out to continue.
A hand clasped Hans on the back. "You look tired Hans, go get some sleep. I can take over here for a while." It was Mucius.
Hans nodded as he got up. "Thanks Mucius, I could use a little sleep." As he left the room, Hans thought about how thankful he was for Mucius' friendship. Since Bakes had unclassified all of the information, Hans deeds became known to all. Very quickly, Hans had lost almost all his friends. Those who favored democracy were angry at Hans for collaborating with Jistap. Many were angry with Hans for being an accomplish in lying about the results of the Iceler vote. Then, there were a number of people who had favored Jistap's world order, and were angry at Hans for working to destroy it. Mucius was one of the few friends he had left.
To Hans dismay, Bakes had emerged as a hero out of the whole affair. The people cheered him for returning democracy. Hans was very distrustful of Bakes. If Bakes had the power to stop Jistap all along, why did he wait so long? Why didn't he stop all the killing at the first chance he got? On top of that, Bakes didn't have to kill Jistap to take him out of power. Bakes had killed another Watcher.
Hans suspected Bakes was after power just like Jistap was, but unlike Jistap he did not have an idealistic motive inspiring him. Bakes was probably a lot like Gaius, wanting power for the sake of power. Bakes had promised to return democracy, but he had yet to do that, and Hans suspected he had no intention of ever doing it, and was simply buying time with empty promises. Nevertheless, Hans intended to give Bakes his two weeks to return democracy, and not one second more.
Soon, Hans had travelled back to his home. He saw a woman at the door. She turned around when she heard his footsteps. He recognized the face of Kyoko. Kyoko had been a childhood friend of Hans. They had spent much time together, playing sports or cards. They had drifted apart by the time Hans had turned eighteen. Since all the Watchers stayed in the city, it would have been almost impossible for Kyoko and Hans not to meet again, even if they tried not to. They had bumped into each other at meetings or parks, and talked briefly, but over the past six years they really had not seen much of each other. Now Hans was twenty four, Kyoko was the same age.
"Kyoko, it's good to see you."
Kyoko smiled. "Hi Hans, how are you doing?"
"Good, good. You haven't been waiting here long have you?"
"Oh no, I just got here."
"Well, come in," said Hans, opening the door for her.
As Kyoko entered the house, Hans was struck by her beauty. Her long black hair, her gentle face, her delicate eyes, all were stunning to him. He followed her into his living room. "Please, have a seat," he gestured toward one of his chairs.
"Thank you," she said as she sat down.
Hans headed towards his replicator. "Can I get you something to drink?" he asked.
"Some tea would be nice." Hans replicated two teas and returned. He gave one to Kyoko.
"So what brings you here?"
Kyoko sipped her tea, before saying, "I know the stress and tribulations you've endured lately. I just thought you could use a friend."
Hans smiled. "You got that right." Much of the rest of the night talking.


Kile was sleeping peacefully on the hospital bed. Doctor Hippocrites walked over to where Drusus and Pericula where waiting. "He's going to be alright. Thank Deka his wounds weren't more dangerous."
"How long before he recovers?" asked Drusus.
"Oh, he'll have to stay in the hospital for two or three weeks at least. After that, he'll still have to be very careful. No more adventures for him for about a year."
Drusus nodded. "Thanks doc. How much is this going to cost?"
Hippocrites, one of the army doctors who had fled to the town, smiled. "For a man wounded fighting Gaius, no charge."
As Pericula and Drusus left the hospital, Pericula hit the door in frustration. "We could have used him."
"That means it's just you and me against Gaius. Do you think we can defeat him?"
"I don't know, but some help wouldn't hurt. Do you think you can recruit anyone in this town to help us?"
Drusus nodded. "There are always some young men eager for adventure and glory."
"Good, start recruiting now. While your at it, arrange lodgings for tonight. I'll be contacting my people."
Drusus looked at her strangely. "From here?"
"Don't worry about it, just go."
Pericula went into a secluded coroner of the street, and called the city on the computer pad. The pad was soon filled with the face of a man she did not recognize.
"Do I know you?" she asked.
"I don't think so. My name is Mucius. I'm filling in for Hans as the Watchers contact to Calet. We've been monitoring your progress all day. You've handled the situation excellently."
"Thanks. Any hope of getting those doors open any time soon?"
Mucius shrugged. "I don't know quite what Bakes has been doing all day to get them open, but whatever it is he appears frustrated. I'd guess he isn't making any progress."
"I suppose it would be pointless to ask whether you guys succeeded in calming Gaius down."
"You put it wonderfully."
"So what are my orders?"
"Stop Gaius any way you can, try not to mess up Calet anymore then we already have, and take care. Gaius is still brooding at the camp with what's left of the twenty men he had following him. Only fourteen are left now."
"All right, I'll be in touch soon. Call me the moment anything develops." Mucius nodded and Pericula turned off her computer pad.


Mucius turned off his monitor after his conversation with Pericula. Having a position of great importance in this crisis, Mucius was finding, to his dismay, that he was surrounded by people offering help he didn't need. These people, though many of them well intentioned, ended up just watching him and getting in the way of things. Mucius had repeatedly asked them politely to leave him alone, and was beginning to lose his patients. After all, he was doing important work here, and could not sacrifice his attention.
Seeing that Mucius was done talking with Pericula, Antonius resumed talking where he had left off. "Anyway, like I was saying, it's a good thing we've got someone responsible doing this work now. Your decision to replace Hans was a good one. He just can't be trusted."
Mucius turned around angrily. "No one says anything bad about Hans, got it? I didn't replace him, I gave him some much needed relief."
Antonius nervously eyed Mucius' muscles. Mucius was arguably the strongest man in the city. "Sure Mucius, whatever you say." Mucius turned around back to his work.


Gaius was horrified to find Blanka dead. He had never liked Blanka at all, but Blanka was able to bring men from Calet to serve under him. Now Gaius was on his own. He had only fourteen men left under him, as compared to the twenty Blanka had brought. Gaius thought about sending one of these men to recruit more from the town, but he decided against it. He had learned his lesson. Treat his men with fairness and reward them lavishly, and recruits would come to him. All the gold and valuables was stripped from the deserted camp, and divided among his men. Now, Gaius was busy planning the little demonstration he had promised to show Bakes.


"This isn't working out at all."
"We should have seen it coming."
"So what do we do Now?"
"Now? Now we put an end to The Watchers once and for all. We would have had to do it soon anyway."
"Agreed. Let's get to work."


Hans waived good-bye to Kyoko. Talking, playing cards, Hans had felt like a teenager again with her. She provided the much needed diversion he needed from the catastrophe. Hans had asked to see her again tomorrow night, and she agreed.
Lying down to sleep, Hans mind drifted back to memories of his younger days, some of them painful. He remembered how Kyoko, Rodens, and he used to spend hours playing a card game called Roku. The game required a fourth person, but a fourth person was never hard to find. Hans memories turned to Rodens. He wondered how he was doing. For all Hans knew, Rodens could be dead by now. Hans quickly decided to shift his thoughts to something else. He wanted to think optimistically. Sure Bakes couldn't be trusted, and Gaius was wrecking havoc, but Hans liked to believe the worst was over. He wanted to think things were looking up.