The Watchers Chapter 5

IN THE TENTH YEAR OF RECAB, KING OF DISHON
Hans stepped out of the city, followed by his ambassadors. Hans was wearing a light coat, and thin gloves. The Coler mountains had lost their bite, and were only mildly cold. In some places, where the sun shone hot and bright, the snow was already melting. In his hand, Hans held a small computer, that was pointing the way to the Iceler villiage. Hans followed the computer, and his ambassadors followed him.
Hans lead them for about a half a mile trek through the snow. After climbing a large hill, the group came upon the Iceler community. The sight was anything but a hopeful one. Many of the Iceler homes had collasped in the heat. Some of the Icelers themselves lay sprawled out on the ground, appearently suffering from the temperature. As soon as the Icelers saw Hans and his group, they reacted with fear, some running away, others preparing to fight. It was obvious they had never seen Humans before.
Hans, in preperation for this meeting, had previously programed several Iceler phrases into his computer. He recalled on of them onto the screen and read it. In Iceler it said, "Do not be afraid. We are on a mission of peace. We are here to help you." The Icelers calmed down. Many of them stopped running, and their shouting was decreased to a great degree. Hans recalled another phrase and read it. "It is hot isn't it?" He expected a response, but upon recieving none from the spellbound Icelers, he continued reading. "I am here to help. These mountains are heating up. Soon you will die. My people want to transport you to a place where it is cold, like this place used to be." When Hans had prepared his little speech, he was sure he would recieve a response at this point, but the Icelers wonder kept them from finding words, so Hans kept reading. "We have come to talk to you. We don't know your language well, so please forgive our inability to speak smoothly. If you wish, we will transport you to safety." An akward silence followed. Hans waved his hand as a signal to the ambassadors, who integrated themselves among the Icelers and began talking to them.
After fifteen minutes or so of this, Hans was approached by one of the Icelers, appearently the leader. He spoke to Hans, and the computer translated it. Hans read the screen, "you can help us?"
Hans responded, "yes", a word that had stayed the same in both languages.
Again the Iceler spoke, and his words were translated. "My people are dying. You must get them to a colder climate quickly."
In very poor Iceler, "you can count on us." The two men shook hands.


Little time was wasted on diplomatics, with the temperature raising rapidly. The Icelers were loaded into ships built by the executer. These ships were speciffically built to hold a large number of Icelers, and were kept at negative fifty degrees, except for the pilots cockpit. Once the destination was programmed into these ships, they practically flew themselve, but two pilots came along just in case. To avoid being seen by the rest of the planet, these ships flew high above the clouds, but unfortunately there were many creatures on Fabulae who could also fly that high.
Five ships were all the executer had to build since each was very big. Little time was wasted getting the Icelers aboard. Hans himself piloted one of the ships. The speed of the ships was such that the journey took only an hour.


In what seemed all to soon a time, Hans was saying good bye to the Iceler leader. In the short time they were together, the two had learned enough about eachothers langauge to be able to communicate somewhat smoothly.
"I must thank your people again," the leader said.
Hans smiled. "I'm just glad we could help. I think you'll be happy in your new enviroment."
"Yes, I think we will be. I wish our two species could live in the same enviroment. I really enjoyed getting to know you."
Hans turned a little red at the compliment. "I'll be back often to see you. I can always wear warm clothes."
The leader returned Hans smile. "Until then, take this to remember my people by." He handed Hans a piece of soft rock, a kind Hans had never seen before. It had been molded into a human figure. "We told stories and made pictures of your kind, but we didn't think you actually existed" explained the leader.
Hans gave the leader his scarf. "You can take this to remember me by."
The two stood in silence for a couple minutes, gazing out at the beautiful white ground which stretched out forever. Then the leader spoke. "My name is Mora. What is yours?"
"I am Hans."
In the distance, a voice called out. "Hans, lets get out of here. I'm freezing my ass off."
Hans turned to Mora. "Goodbye, and goodluck."
Mora waved. "May we met agian soon Hans."
"But next time, under calmer circumstances." Hans took one more look at the enviroment, then slowly walked off.


Rodens sat in his prison cell, fuming. He had been in there a day and a half now. In that time he knew all the Icelers had been exacuated. The damage was done now, irrepairably. Even if Jistap, Hans, and the others were tried and convicted, sentenced to the highest Watcher penalty, then-
Rodens stopped himself. Thats assuming he ever got out of this prison. Jistap had promised him his freedom once the Icelers were safe, but how reliably was Jistap? His word was worthless. If he didn't blink an eyelash at decieving the whole city, why should he care about decieving one man. Rodens thoughts raced on. If Jistap was evil enough to destroy the democracy, he was surely capable of keeping him in prison for, Rodens swallowed, forever. Of course, it made perfect sense now. Why in the world would Jistap want him to be freed. It would only mean his fall from power, and facing criminal charges.
"No!" Rodens screamed aloud and pounded the cell wall. That must not happen. Jistap must not get away with his crimes. Somehow, someway, Rodens realized he must free himself. When he did, he would make sure Jistap was killed. Jistap and all the others. Jistap and-
Again, Rodens stopped himself. Kill Hans too? Why would Hans turn against him? Hans was his friend, one of his best friends. He knew Hans wanted to save the Icelers, but badly enough too betray his friend? No, of course not. Jistap must have corrupted him. Jistap would pay. Oh, how he would make Jistap pay.
But how? How could he hurt Jistap the most. How could he destroy him. Taking his life wasn't enough. Besides, Rodens thought, Jistap may be evil but he is still a Watcher. He couldn't take a fellow Watchers life.
Then, as if struck by lightening, and idea hit Rodens. He smiled with his newfound knowledge. If he killed all the Icelers, that would destroy everything Jistap had worked for. It would shame Hans back to normacly. If Hans could only see, his destruction of the Democracy wasn't for a higher cause. It was useless, totally useless. The Icelers would die anyway, and Jistap will have dishonered himself for nothing. Rodens laughed bitterly. Once Hans saw how useless this was, he would be knocked back to his sensess.
Rodens stopped laughing. He still had no way out of his prison. His mind raced through possibilitys. He couldn't jump the jailgaurd when he came into feed him, because all his food was replicated in the jail cell. Furthermore, the computer had been instructed to only replicate food, and Rodens had found himself unable to convince it to do otherwise. There was also a toliet in the jail cell, so that the door was rarely opened. Rodens thought about faking sickness to get the doors open, but he could be scanned from a distance to prove he was in perfect health.
Or was he? Rodens thought about a self inflicted injury. Then when the door was opened, he could escape. Even Jistap, he reasoned, wouldn't let a fellow Watcher die. "Executer," Rodens called out, "replicate Swavanka please." The Nathorian delicacy appeared before him, complete with a knife to cut it. Swavanka, famous for its toughness, came with a very sharp knife. Rodens grabbed the knife and clenched his teeth against the pain.


Of the thirteen people in league with Jistap, there was always a time when one of them was watching Rodens. Right now, it was Pericula's turn. While she sat in her home, she exercised, read a little of her book, and wrote a letter to her father, all while having Rodens displayed on a monitor, which she glanced up at every once and a while. As she was eating dinner, it was pure coiencidenc that she happened to look up at the monitor just as Rodens grabbed the knife. There was something about the way he held it that made Pericula nervous. He looked at the knife with an almost insane gleam in his eyes. Pericula's dinner dropped out of her hand in surprise when she saw him cut his wrist with the knife. Rodens grimmaced in pain, and held his injured hand for a moment as he figeted in discomfort. Then, as soon as he was able to regain his composure, he cut the other one.
"Computer," she called out. "Is Jistap alone?"
"Jistap is at a public ceremony."
"Is Bakes alone then?"
"Bakes is alone."
"Let me speak with him."
Soon afterwards, Bakes' voice inflatrated the room. "Bakes here, can I help you?"
"This is Pericula. I was watching Rodens on the monitor, and he just cut both his wrists with a knife."
"He What?!"
Pericula glanced up at the monitor. "He just cut his chest. He's cutting himself all over."
"Deka! What the hell is he doing that for?"
"I don't know."
A moment of silence followed, before Bakes responded, "that son of a bitch, he's trying to break out. When we come to try and help him, he'll try and get away."
"What should I do sir."
"Don't move. I'll get back to you. Executer, terminate connection." Pericula looked at the monitor again. Rodens had now slashed most of his body. With the exception of his wrists, none of the slashes were very deep. She concluded that he must be saving his strength for a breakour.
"Incoming message."
"Put it through. Bakes, is that you?"
"Yes, I've got Rodens on my monitor now. That crazy bastard is cut all over his body. I just checked the location of the other eleven of us. Everyone is involved some way or another with rescuing the Icelers, or at the ceremony celebrating their rescue. I, myself, am expected to speak at that ceremony in ten minutes. Your on your own."
"What do I do?"
"Replicate a weapon along with appropriate medical supplies. While you attend to his injuries, keep the weapon pointed at him at all times. In the meantime, I'll just reprogram his replicator from here so that it doesn't replicate utensils. If I'm a couple minutes late to the ceremony, who cares."
"Yes sir."
"Pericula, keep an eye on Rodens all the time. For Deka's sake, stay safe. We're counting on you."
"Yes sir."
"I'll check things out as soon as I can break away from the ceremony. Until then. Executor, terminate connection."
Pericula looked on the monitor and saw Rodens' bloody corpse lying on the floor, face down, motionless. She shivered with fear.