IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Hans was beginning to get discouraged. He had spent the past couple of days searching for Rodens among the Arctic Circle of the North Pole. He had not been able to locate Rodens ship, but he was positive that was because Rodens had made his ship invisible to sensors. Whenever Hans sensors located a life form, he landed his ship to talk to it. Hans realized the consequence of this action was the possibility that the valued secrecy of The Watchers would be lost, but he could think of no other option. Rodens could be anywhere in the world by now, and it would be impossible for Hans to track him down simply by his instinct.
To the best of his knowledge, Rodens was still in the arctic circle. Hans talked to several life forms that had seen his ship. Hans also learned that two more Iceler tribes had been attacked by Rodens. As far as Hans knew, Rodens had killed at least seventy Icelers.
It was a great frustration to Hans not to be able to communicate with the city. He knew that they would be able to track the exact location of Rodens, but Rodens would be able to track the source of the communication, and have the advantage of a surprise attack. Be that as it may, each day Hans became more and more tempted to take the chance.
It was two days since Jistap had seized power. Pericula remembered the events of that recent past with sadness. Jistap had his face put on every monitor in the city, and announced his plans for dictatorship. He had plenty of resistance of course, but his army clearly had the advantage. The people grabbed energy firearms, but the Executor would not allow them to work. Of course, old fashioned guns that were fueled by gunpowder worked, as did swords, spears, daggers, et cetera, but not many of the people had these weapons, and Jistap made sure they couldn't replicate any. The resistance was crushed, leaving seven hundred dead, and about a thousand exiled. Among those exiled was Pericula's own father. After Jistap had firmly positioned himself in power, the old man had calmly walked up to Jistap, and told Jistap that he would never support him. He was, like all the other exiles, thrown out of the city into the Coler Mountains. By this time the Coler's had reached a pleasant temperature, like that of a cool spring day, and was still getting hotter every day. The exiles had banded together and formed a colony.
Few supported Jistap, but any who publicly admitted their lack of enthusiasm was exiled. Once the zealots of freedom had been booted out, everyone kept their mouth shut. Jistap had wanted to introduce his reforms immediately. Bakes had suggested he give the people a couple weeks to get used to the new government, and they had compromised at a one week adjustment period.
Jistap was still on his guard. He knew that much of his opposition was yet to be taken care of. Many of the freedom zealots had been temporarily convinced not to oppose him by their friends and family, others were simply waiting for the right moment to strike. Jistap had many of his loyal followers spend several hours each day watching the monitors, looking at what people have been saying for the past few days, to see what they were saying about him in private. Anyone who's speech indicated the slightest disapproval of Jistap was exiled. Jistap also exercised his power by classifying all information on himself.
Among those who disapproved of Jistap, but had not yet acted, was Pericula's brother, Julius. Julius was nineteen, seven years younger then his sister. The night Jistap took control, Julius had set out to fight Jistap's army with the only weapon he could find, a kitchen knife. Pericula had intercepted him in time to prevent him from taking any action, and had pleaded with him not to fight Jistap. Julius had reluctantly agreed, but Pericula feared he might do something rash. She knew Julius was ashamed that his father had stood up to Jistap, but he had not. She also feared that Jistap would review the conversation on his monitor and exile Julius, but with the thousands of people in the city, the odds were in favor of the conversation not being found.
"It's really not that bad here. The weather is pleasant, and the ground is soft. I could get used to this place."
"Shut up, Quintus. This place sucks. Quit trying to cheer us up."
"No seriously, it's really not that bad. If I have to spend the rest of my life in exile, this is as good as place as any. I mean, there's no robbers, no war. Except for us, the Coler mountains are uninhabited."
Antonius shifted restlessly. "There's also no food," he pointed out. "Remember, until a few days ago this whole mountain was covered with snow. There's been no time for vegetation to grow. We have to send a group down to the base of the mountain each day to gather food for the rest of us. Besides, as sound as Gowron or Grarap find out the Coler mountains are now habitable, we'll probably be conquered."
Crassus, who had been silent until this point, suddenly became curious. "How hot do you think the Colers are going to get?" he asked. "I mean, I guess everyone assumed it's going to get so hot, and then stop. Maybe it will reach 90 degrees or so, and then that's how hot it will stay. But how do we know the temperature won't reach a hundred degrees? Perhaps it will get so hot that the very rocks on these mountains will melt."
Antonius scoffed. "Oh you don't believe that, do you? Surely the satellite can't be transmitting that much heat."
Crassus shrugged. "Do you know how much heat it is transmitting?"
"Well, no not exactly. Bakes never told us exactly how much heat is being transmitted, but I'm sure it can't be near that much, or he would have mentioned something. Besides, if that much heat was being sent, don't you think the Coler's temperature would have risen faster?"
Mucius walked up to the three. "Mind if I join you?" he asked.
Antonius shook his head. "Have a seat. We were just discussing the value of remaining on Coler."
Mucius looked surprised. After he sat down he asked, "Well your not discussing moving, are you?"
"I see no point in remaining here," Antonius said. "We have to go so far to get food."
Mucius threw up his hands. "You haven't given up already, have you?"
Antonius exchanged confused glances with his comrades. "What are you talking about?"
"Well we have to get back into the city and undo the damage Jistap did," Mucius stated matter-a-factly.
"And how, do tell, are we going to do that?" Antonius' cynicism was not disguised.
Mucius laughed confidently. "Antonius, you have been sleeping during the lessons of history. Men like Jistap do not live long. We should be back in the city in a year at the longest. Until then we should stand ready."
That statement was too much for Crassus. "Be careful what you say, Mucius. Jistap may be watching us even here."
Quintus snickered. "What can he do to us now? We're already exiled."
Crassus paused briefly before saying, "Well, he could kill us."
To the surprise of his comrades, Quintus seemed shocked by this statement. "Don't be ridiculous. Jistap wouldn't kill a fellow Watcher."
"He already has you idiot," Antonius shouted.
"What?!"
"His army killed at least seven hundred. How could you possibly not know that?"
Quintus shook his head gently. He turned looked away to hide the tears in his eyes. "I was one of the first ones exiled. No one told me he killed that many. I just thought-" His voice was suddenly cut off as he restrained a sob. The mood of the meeting suddenly turned somber. "Deka help us, seven hundred dead."
Antonius softened his voice. "Well, its not like this is the first time a Watcher has killed another. It happens from time to time. Why just last week someone got jailed for life for killing two people."
"Yeah, I know but," Quintus paused, "I just never expected one of our politicians to do it. Especially not that many."
"No one expected," Mucius said. "And no one should have. Jistap is insane." Crassus opened his mouth to warn Mucius again, but thought better of it. "He's insane, and he's going to get himself killed soon. When that happens, I'll be one of the first to dance on his grave."
"Who's going to kill him? He's exiled or killed all how dare to oppose. The only one's left in the city are spineless cowards. All the men of valor left alive are right here in this colony."
Mucius stretched his arms before standing up. As he left he called out, "don't be to sure Antonius. Yet in the city are heros waiting for a chance to restore liberty."
Jistap fumed with anger as he watched Mucius walk away on the monitor. "That self serving toad! I should have had him killed. He's practically giving a graven invitation to anyone who wants to assassinate me." Jistap scowled for a few seconds, before calling out, "Bakes! Bakes, get over here!"
Bakes came running from the adjoining room. "Yes sir, can I help you?"
"I've been watching a conversation on the monitor. One of the exiles named Mucius gave a treasonous speech. You'd better classify it. If the wrong person watches it, it could incite them to do something rash."
Bakes paused, confused. "Sir, you don't need my help to classify it anymore. All you have to do is tell the Executor to classify it, and it will obey you without question."
"Oh, that's right. I had quite forgotten about that. Old habits die hard, you know."
"Understandable sir, quite understandable." Bakes bowed and headed out of the room.
"Well I better hurry up and classify this," Jistap added, mostly to himself, "before someone else sees it."
Jistap would not have been happy had he known that even as he classified the conversation, it was too late. Julius, like Jistap, had been watching the conversation as it happened and was deeply affected by it. The words of Antonius, calling all who had not yet stood up to Jistap spinless cowards, cut him deep. Although he did not even know Mucius, he felt that Mucius was referring to him personally when he spoke of heros awaiting their chance. He slammed his fist down onto the table. He must act now!
Julius calmed himself down. Don't go about this thing half cocked, he told himself. Jistap had killed seven hundred and exiled a thousand. He was a force to be reckoned with. Julius knew he had to develop a plan. If he was going to kill Jistap, he must first have a weapon. Julius had none, and he couldn't replicate any. However, there were several weapons in the city before the replicator had refused to make weapons. Many of his friends had a laser gun, or some similar weapon, but they were all useless now. Few people he knew had other weapons, but there were some.
Julius knew one family that owned a small gun. They used it for target practice. It was small enough that he could easily conceal it under his clothes, but Julius knew the family would never loan it to him. They were cautious people, who had no desire to get in trouble with Jistap. Julius briefly considered stealing it from them, but that was no good either. As soon as they noticed the gun was gone, they could ask the teacher who took it. When they find out it was Julius, they might deduce his purpose, and warn Jistap. Unless, Julius' mind raced on, unless they didn't notice the gun was gone until it was too late.
Showing posts with label New Era. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Era. Show all posts
Monday, December 27, 2004
The New Era Chapter 2
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"I trust you all know why we're here," Jistap said. "We have gathered here today to form the Fabulae's order. You twelve will be rewarded for helping me save the Icelers, and so facilitating my rise to power, by having power second only to my own. Hans will receive the same honor when he returns. I suggest we get busy. Fabulae has a lot of problems, and they need to be solved as soon as possible.
"The first major problem on our agenda is war. Once this is eliminated, we can work on the other problems. Since history has proven it is impossible for nations to coexist peacefully with each other, I think the only possible solution to war is to have Fabulae ruled by one government, but as always, I would like to hear your opinion." Jistap paused to await another view, but none was mentioned. Several of those present praised Jistap for his wisdom, saying no one in his right mind would disagree with a plan like that. Pericula was disgusted with theses sycophants, but remained silent.
"Hearing no disagreement, I will move on. I propose we select one nation, and place upon its throne a man of integrity. We meet with this man frequently, instructing him to try and conquer his neighbors. He will make war on his neighbors one by one, and we will aid him in each war with our advanced technology, until he has conquered all of Fabulae. Now I realize to some of you, this plan my seem hypocritical. Here I am, preaching peace throughout Fabulae, and am advocating a terribly violent plan to get there, but I am convinced that the ends will justify the means if not in all cases, certainly in this one. I see no other option for world peace, but I would like to here yours." Pericula noted that the reaction to this question was appallingly like the first. Even more appalling was the fact that Jistap quite visibly enjoyed this reaction, and Pericula got the feeling he didn't really want to hear their opinion after all.
Beaming with pride Jistap continued. "The next thing to decide then, is which nation we select. Before this meeting I had briefly talked with Livius," Jistap waved his hand in Livius direction. Livius was one of the top historians of the city, and was one of the thirteen who had joined with Jistap."-and we discussed this problem to some extant. I'll leave him to tell you what came of that conversation."
Jistap settled back in his chair, and gave a little nod to Livius, who cleared his throat as he made a quick sweep of the room with his eyes. Then he began. "Jistap approached me and explained his delimma, not knowing which nation we should choose. He then, in his profound wisdom, suggested we choose a current world power, one that was presently in a state of superiority over its neighbors, so that it would require less time, work, and blood to establish its complete rule, rather then starting from scratch with a weak nation. I informed him that the current world power was Marram. Jistap, though wise beyond other men in almost everything else, knew little about Marram, so I supplied him with a brief summary of what the country was like. After hearing this, Jistap wasted no time in deciding that Marram was unworthy of ruling the world." Jistap moved his hands in a circular motion, a signal for Livius to expand. "Marram has been most vicious in her wars. She takes no prisoners. Her people have no regard for life, outside of their own. They live to kill and plunder."
"Surely a whole nation can't be like that," broke in Pericula. "They're are honest people in Marram just as in any other nation."
"The point here," Jistap replied, "is not how many honest people Marram has, but that the nation itself stands against everything my new world order means. Before we proceed further, we must destroy Marram. I have therefore decided to send one ship against it. Equipped with one of our most powerful laser cannons, its mission will be to level most of Marram's major cities, and assassinate its king, Azom. I trust there are no objections."
"Sir, do you realize how many innocent people this plan will kill?" asked Pericula. "I'm sure only a fraction of the people in any of those major cities wholeheartedly approve of their government."
"It is my deepest regret that the new order can not be brought about, except by blood. However, Marram must be weakened at all costs. After this attack, it will be venerable to its many enemies." Jistap paused briefly to think about his own words, before exploding into action. "No time must be wasted, the world desperately awaits. Send out a ship at once." Jistap pointed to young Sulla. "I need you to complete the mission." Sulla nodded obediently. "Move now lad, the future can not wait." Sulla quickly moved towards the hanger.
The past few days had been unproductive for Hans. He had talked to several life forms, but unlike before, none of them had seen Rodens ship. Hans had even returned to talk to Mora, but Mora had not seen Rodens ship either. Hans was beginning to get worried. Rodens could be anywhere in Fabulae. He could be killing Icelers in the South Pole, or creating havoc somewhere else in the world, or he could just be lying low. Hans situation was looking hopeless. Compared to tracking Rodens down all over Fabulae, finding a needle in a haystack would be child's play. Feeling like he had no other choice, Hans was about to contact the city, when he had a stroke of luck. He saw, on his controls, that a ship had been identified over Marram. The ship was making no attempt to shield itself from Hans sensors.
Hans was delighted. Although his computer could not tell him what the ship was doing, it was obvious the ship belonged to Rodens. Hans didn't have the foggiest idea why Rodens would choose to unshield himself, but several ideas rushed through his head. Perhaps Rodens wanted to give up, and was waiting for Hans to come and arrest him. Perhaps he wanted to fight Hans one on one. Perhaps his equipment had malfunctioned. Right now, all Hans knew was that his search was over. He set out for Marram at full speed.
Julius was gradually beginning to shape his plan. One night, when the family was away from their home, Julius would enter, steal the gun, and assassinate Jistap all before the family got back. Julius did not have to worry about getting past locked doors. Since anything The Watchers desired could be replicated, thieves were not a problem and therefore few people locked their doors.
Before he went into action, Julius decided to talk to Boon. Boon was a member of the family that owned the gun, and Julius thought Boon might provide him with some helpful information. Like most Watchers, Julius was ignorant of unsophisticated weapons. Julius had the Teacher locate Boon's location, and Julius went there to talk to him, pretending to bump into Boon accidently.
"Sorry Boon," said Julius, after the collision. "I guess I just wasn't looking where I was going."
Julius knew he would have no problem striking up a conversation with the fourteen year old Boon, probably one of the most talkative people in the city. Boon did not disappoint his prediction. "No problem Julius. Got a lot on your mind?"
Julius shrugged. "No, not really. How have you been lately?"
Immediately Julius wished he had not asked. Boon suddenly jumped into a long and detailed narrative of his activities for the past week. Julius listen silently, nodding from time to time, until Boon mentioned his target practice. "-and then I had just barely got done with the game, when my dad asked me if I wanted to go target practicing."
"Target practicing?" asked Julius, feigning dumb.
"Yeah, you know, with our gun. Anyway, I didn't really want to-"
"You have a gun?" Julius interrupted again.
"Yeah, you know that." Julius shook his head, doing his best to look puzzled. "I'm positive I told you. Maybe you forgot."
"Maybe. Do you enjoy it?"
"Oh it's okay. It gets kind of boring after a while. I'm getting pretty good. Just last month I shot two Bulls eyes." Boon noticed that Julius seemed unimpressed, so he added, "that's pretty hard you know. It took me a lot of practice to even hit the target."
Julius jaw dropped. "You mean it takes practice to hit stuff?"
Boon didn't notice Julius' shock. "Of course. If it was easy to hit things, target practice wouldn't be any fun. It's not like a laser gun at all. You could practice for years and still miss a good percentage of your targets. In fact one time my uncle, he's quite into this stuff, he was over at our house and-"
Julius drowned out Boon's babbling in his mind. It was obvious that a gun wouldn't be the best weapon to use. A dagger would probably serve his purposes much better, and getting his hands on a dagger would be no problem at all. Julius knew someone who would gladly give him one.
The scene which greeted Hans was anything but pleasant. The ship he had spotted on his control panel was obviously not Rodens ship. Although his sensors hadn't been able to tell the difference since both ships were extremely similar, Hans now could see the ship in front of him did not belong to Rodens. To start with, it was a different color, but more importantly, it had the most powerful laser cannon known to the Watchers, and Hans knew Rodens had a laser cannon equal to his in strength. What was even more disturbing was that the ship was indiscriminately killing all in it's path. It was using its laser cannon to destroy anything it could see. One shot from the cannon, and immediately a building that had previously reached almost twenty meters in height was turned into ashes, along with all its inhabitants. Hans was as horrified as he was confused. He immediately sent a message over to the other ship. "This is Hans. Who are you, and what are you doing?"
The other ship stopped it's destruction. On Hans control panel was shown a picture of the pilot, whom Hans recognized as Sulla. "Sulla? What are you doing?"
"I'm destroying Marram, Hans."
"You're what!" Hans head began to swirl greater then ever before.
Sulla glanced nervously about. "Listen, its a long story. I've got to accomplish my mission at once. Go back to the city, Jistap will tell you everything."
Hans exploded into anger. "Damn it Sulla, your going to make the time to explain this to me, or I'll fight you right now."
Sulla knocked timidly on Jistap's door. "You may enter," the voice came from inside. Sulla stepped meekly inside. Jistap was seated in a chair, facing away from Sulla and so he couldn't see Sulla's worried face. "Did you accomplish your mission?"
Sulla swallowed. "Well not exactly sir. I devastated three cities, and I was working on my fourth when-"
Jistap swirled around angrily to face him. "When what?"
Sulla shrank back, as Hans came through the door. Jistap laughed. "Oh, Hans its you. I'm terribly sorry, I should have remembered you were after Rodens. No doubt you saw Sulla's ship on your sensors and thought it was your man. I'm terribly sorry. Even if I had remembered to alert you though, I would have had no way of contacting you. I'm terribly sorry."
Hans calmly walked over to Jistap, grabbed him by his shirt collar, and pulled him to his feet. He then rammed Jistap against the wall. "You son of a bitch. I should have known you couldn't be trusted."
Jistap chuckled nervously. "Now Hans, I knew you'd be a little upset when you first found out about this, but trust me its for the-"
"Shut up you little worm. Your not going to talk your way out of this one."
"Hans I must insist-"
Hans slapped Jistap across the face, hard. "I said shut-up, you posionous snake."
Jistap smiled, as one who suddenly remembers something that brings him great joy. "Executor, teach Hans some manners." A energy bolt flew out of the walls, and struck Hans side, knocking him clear across the room. Hans lay on the floor, writhing for a few minutes and coughing violently, all the while clutching the spot where the energy had struck him. Then, he lay still, face down. Jistap stood over him. "I'm sorry Hans, but you can't talk to me like that anymore. I'm in control now. I like you Hans, I really do, but your life could be the price for not treating me with enough respect." Hans rolled over, and spit at Jistap.
"I'll never submit to you Jistap, never!"
Jistap's hand flew back, and it looked like he was about to strike Hans, when he suddenly calmed down. "Hans, Hans, I knew you would act like this. I said to myself, 'Hans is an idealist. He always wants to do what's right, but sometimes he forgets the important thing is not doing what's right, but doing that which will help others.'"
"There one and the same."
"No there not Hans. When we saved the Icelers, we had to lie. We had to trick the whole city. We had to imprison Rodens, who's only crime was wanting the truth to be known. We had to twist democracy, but damn it Hans we saved lives."
"Given the circumstances, I think we made the right decision."
"Even though we had to imprison Rodens, who had done no wrong?" Hans nodded. "Even though we had to disregard the peoples' will, disregard democracy?" Hans nodded again. "Can't you see it's the same thing Hans? Can't you see that? I'm still saving lives. I had to exile a few people because they would have jeopardized my mission. I had to throw democracy out the window, but I'm saving lives."
"Jistap, I am against the way you killed seven hundred, and exiled a thousand. I'm against the way you grabbed power for yourself."
"Now just a minute-"
"Let me finish. I'm against all these things, but I might have joined you in spite of all this if it were for one thing."
"My plan to cease war?"
"Your plan to conquer Fabulae. Think of all the lives you will destroy. And on top of that, you send Sulla here to attack civilians. Civilians damn it, have you no shame?"
"But Hans, once my plan is over, all war will cease. Think how many lives that will save."
"There's another way. You could do this more gradually, and without as much bloodshed. Just think about what would happen if you-"
"No! No Hans the new order can not wait." Jistap suddenly seemed very angry. "I'm not trying to convince you for my sake! I'm trying to save you hardship Hans! Are you with me or against me?"
"I'm against you all the way."
"Guards!" Two men entered the room in response to Jistap's cry. "guards, escort Hans into exile." Hans was roughly grabbed and dragged away. Jistap turned to Sulla. "While, what are you waiting for? Go finish crippling Marram."
"The usual Ishod?"
Ishod shook his head. "Sorry Jolk, but I have orders from the king himself that my lips may touch no wine. I will have some grape juice though."
Jolk gave a puzzled look as he poured a glass. "Why did the king order that?"
Ishod smiled. "I can't tell. It's a matter of national security."
"Oh really. I don't suppose you could-" a loud crash cut off Jolk's words. Ishod turned to see a drunk who had just fallen flat on his face. He went to help him up.
"Easy fellow. You've had too much to drink," Ishod said as he gently put the mans arm around his shoulder.
Talking thickly, the man gave his reply. "Yeah buddy, well you wouldn't say that if you knew the trouble I'm in. I'm a murderer you know. I've killed about a hundred Icelers. Now I can't ever go home again."
"Oh really, so what are you going to do now," Ishod asked, humoring the drunk.
"Oh stay in Dishon I guess. I can't ever go back to the city again, never again." Ishod gently set the man down in a chair. He had just barely straitened up, when Tomaz flew into his face.
"Ishod! Ishod! I've got great news, great news." Tomaz paused. "We'd better go outside though, I'm not sure it's public knowledge yet."
Ishod hesitated. "Can this wait? I was just about to-"
"Ishod, this is great news. Biggest news this century."
Ishod, his curiosity sparked, followed Tomaz out the door. Tomaz flew into a deserted ally, and waited for Ishod to catch up. Ishod had barely gotten into the ally, before Tomaz burst with the news. "Some one, or something, has attacked all of Marram's greatest cities, and destroyed them. Azom himself has been killed. Marram has withdrawn all of her troops, and is focusing all her efforts on rebuilding the cities. Reports are sketchy, but we know this for certain, the war is over!"
"I trust you all know why we're here," Jistap said. "We have gathered here today to form the Fabulae's order. You twelve will be rewarded for helping me save the Icelers, and so facilitating my rise to power, by having power second only to my own. Hans will receive the same honor when he returns. I suggest we get busy. Fabulae has a lot of problems, and they need to be solved as soon as possible.
"The first major problem on our agenda is war. Once this is eliminated, we can work on the other problems. Since history has proven it is impossible for nations to coexist peacefully with each other, I think the only possible solution to war is to have Fabulae ruled by one government, but as always, I would like to hear your opinion." Jistap paused to await another view, but none was mentioned. Several of those present praised Jistap for his wisdom, saying no one in his right mind would disagree with a plan like that. Pericula was disgusted with theses sycophants, but remained silent.
"Hearing no disagreement, I will move on. I propose we select one nation, and place upon its throne a man of integrity. We meet with this man frequently, instructing him to try and conquer his neighbors. He will make war on his neighbors one by one, and we will aid him in each war with our advanced technology, until he has conquered all of Fabulae. Now I realize to some of you, this plan my seem hypocritical. Here I am, preaching peace throughout Fabulae, and am advocating a terribly violent plan to get there, but I am convinced that the ends will justify the means if not in all cases, certainly in this one. I see no other option for world peace, but I would like to here yours." Pericula noted that the reaction to this question was appallingly like the first. Even more appalling was the fact that Jistap quite visibly enjoyed this reaction, and Pericula got the feeling he didn't really want to hear their opinion after all.
Beaming with pride Jistap continued. "The next thing to decide then, is which nation we select. Before this meeting I had briefly talked with Livius," Jistap waved his hand in Livius direction. Livius was one of the top historians of the city, and was one of the thirteen who had joined with Jistap."-and we discussed this problem to some extant. I'll leave him to tell you what came of that conversation."
Jistap settled back in his chair, and gave a little nod to Livius, who cleared his throat as he made a quick sweep of the room with his eyes. Then he began. "Jistap approached me and explained his delimma, not knowing which nation we should choose. He then, in his profound wisdom, suggested we choose a current world power, one that was presently in a state of superiority over its neighbors, so that it would require less time, work, and blood to establish its complete rule, rather then starting from scratch with a weak nation. I informed him that the current world power was Marram. Jistap, though wise beyond other men in almost everything else, knew little about Marram, so I supplied him with a brief summary of what the country was like. After hearing this, Jistap wasted no time in deciding that Marram was unworthy of ruling the world." Jistap moved his hands in a circular motion, a signal for Livius to expand. "Marram has been most vicious in her wars. She takes no prisoners. Her people have no regard for life, outside of their own. They live to kill and plunder."
"Surely a whole nation can't be like that," broke in Pericula. "They're are honest people in Marram just as in any other nation."
"The point here," Jistap replied, "is not how many honest people Marram has, but that the nation itself stands against everything my new world order means. Before we proceed further, we must destroy Marram. I have therefore decided to send one ship against it. Equipped with one of our most powerful laser cannons, its mission will be to level most of Marram's major cities, and assassinate its king, Azom. I trust there are no objections."
"Sir, do you realize how many innocent people this plan will kill?" asked Pericula. "I'm sure only a fraction of the people in any of those major cities wholeheartedly approve of their government."
"It is my deepest regret that the new order can not be brought about, except by blood. However, Marram must be weakened at all costs. After this attack, it will be venerable to its many enemies." Jistap paused briefly to think about his own words, before exploding into action. "No time must be wasted, the world desperately awaits. Send out a ship at once." Jistap pointed to young Sulla. "I need you to complete the mission." Sulla nodded obediently. "Move now lad, the future can not wait." Sulla quickly moved towards the hanger.
The past few days had been unproductive for Hans. He had talked to several life forms, but unlike before, none of them had seen Rodens ship. Hans had even returned to talk to Mora, but Mora had not seen Rodens ship either. Hans was beginning to get worried. Rodens could be anywhere in Fabulae. He could be killing Icelers in the South Pole, or creating havoc somewhere else in the world, or he could just be lying low. Hans situation was looking hopeless. Compared to tracking Rodens down all over Fabulae, finding a needle in a haystack would be child's play. Feeling like he had no other choice, Hans was about to contact the city, when he had a stroke of luck. He saw, on his controls, that a ship had been identified over Marram. The ship was making no attempt to shield itself from Hans sensors.
Hans was delighted. Although his computer could not tell him what the ship was doing, it was obvious the ship belonged to Rodens. Hans didn't have the foggiest idea why Rodens would choose to unshield himself, but several ideas rushed through his head. Perhaps Rodens wanted to give up, and was waiting for Hans to come and arrest him. Perhaps he wanted to fight Hans one on one. Perhaps his equipment had malfunctioned. Right now, all Hans knew was that his search was over. He set out for Marram at full speed.
Julius was gradually beginning to shape his plan. One night, when the family was away from their home, Julius would enter, steal the gun, and assassinate Jistap all before the family got back. Julius did not have to worry about getting past locked doors. Since anything The Watchers desired could be replicated, thieves were not a problem and therefore few people locked their doors.
Before he went into action, Julius decided to talk to Boon. Boon was a member of the family that owned the gun, and Julius thought Boon might provide him with some helpful information. Like most Watchers, Julius was ignorant of unsophisticated weapons. Julius had the Teacher locate Boon's location, and Julius went there to talk to him, pretending to bump into Boon accidently.
"Sorry Boon," said Julius, after the collision. "I guess I just wasn't looking where I was going."
Julius knew he would have no problem striking up a conversation with the fourteen year old Boon, probably one of the most talkative people in the city. Boon did not disappoint his prediction. "No problem Julius. Got a lot on your mind?"
Julius shrugged. "No, not really. How have you been lately?"
Immediately Julius wished he had not asked. Boon suddenly jumped into a long and detailed narrative of his activities for the past week. Julius listen silently, nodding from time to time, until Boon mentioned his target practice. "-and then I had just barely got done with the game, when my dad asked me if I wanted to go target practicing."
"Target practicing?" asked Julius, feigning dumb.
"Yeah, you know, with our gun. Anyway, I didn't really want to-"
"You have a gun?" Julius interrupted again.
"Yeah, you know that." Julius shook his head, doing his best to look puzzled. "I'm positive I told you. Maybe you forgot."
"Maybe. Do you enjoy it?"
"Oh it's okay. It gets kind of boring after a while. I'm getting pretty good. Just last month I shot two Bulls eyes." Boon noticed that Julius seemed unimpressed, so he added, "that's pretty hard you know. It took me a lot of practice to even hit the target."
Julius jaw dropped. "You mean it takes practice to hit stuff?"
Boon didn't notice Julius' shock. "Of course. If it was easy to hit things, target practice wouldn't be any fun. It's not like a laser gun at all. You could practice for years and still miss a good percentage of your targets. In fact one time my uncle, he's quite into this stuff, he was over at our house and-"
Julius drowned out Boon's babbling in his mind. It was obvious that a gun wouldn't be the best weapon to use. A dagger would probably serve his purposes much better, and getting his hands on a dagger would be no problem at all. Julius knew someone who would gladly give him one.
The scene which greeted Hans was anything but pleasant. The ship he had spotted on his control panel was obviously not Rodens ship. Although his sensors hadn't been able to tell the difference since both ships were extremely similar, Hans now could see the ship in front of him did not belong to Rodens. To start with, it was a different color, but more importantly, it had the most powerful laser cannon known to the Watchers, and Hans knew Rodens had a laser cannon equal to his in strength. What was even more disturbing was that the ship was indiscriminately killing all in it's path. It was using its laser cannon to destroy anything it could see. One shot from the cannon, and immediately a building that had previously reached almost twenty meters in height was turned into ashes, along with all its inhabitants. Hans was as horrified as he was confused. He immediately sent a message over to the other ship. "This is Hans. Who are you, and what are you doing?"
The other ship stopped it's destruction. On Hans control panel was shown a picture of the pilot, whom Hans recognized as Sulla. "Sulla? What are you doing?"
"I'm destroying Marram, Hans."
"You're what!" Hans head began to swirl greater then ever before.
Sulla glanced nervously about. "Listen, its a long story. I've got to accomplish my mission at once. Go back to the city, Jistap will tell you everything."
Hans exploded into anger. "Damn it Sulla, your going to make the time to explain this to me, or I'll fight you right now."
Sulla knocked timidly on Jistap's door. "You may enter," the voice came from inside. Sulla stepped meekly inside. Jistap was seated in a chair, facing away from Sulla and so he couldn't see Sulla's worried face. "Did you accomplish your mission?"
Sulla swallowed. "Well not exactly sir. I devastated three cities, and I was working on my fourth when-"
Jistap swirled around angrily to face him. "When what?"
Sulla shrank back, as Hans came through the door. Jistap laughed. "Oh, Hans its you. I'm terribly sorry, I should have remembered you were after Rodens. No doubt you saw Sulla's ship on your sensors and thought it was your man. I'm terribly sorry. Even if I had remembered to alert you though, I would have had no way of contacting you. I'm terribly sorry."
Hans calmly walked over to Jistap, grabbed him by his shirt collar, and pulled him to his feet. He then rammed Jistap against the wall. "You son of a bitch. I should have known you couldn't be trusted."
Jistap chuckled nervously. "Now Hans, I knew you'd be a little upset when you first found out about this, but trust me its for the-"
"Shut up you little worm. Your not going to talk your way out of this one."
"Hans I must insist-"
Hans slapped Jistap across the face, hard. "I said shut-up, you posionous snake."
Jistap smiled, as one who suddenly remembers something that brings him great joy. "Executor, teach Hans some manners." A energy bolt flew out of the walls, and struck Hans side, knocking him clear across the room. Hans lay on the floor, writhing for a few minutes and coughing violently, all the while clutching the spot where the energy had struck him. Then, he lay still, face down. Jistap stood over him. "I'm sorry Hans, but you can't talk to me like that anymore. I'm in control now. I like you Hans, I really do, but your life could be the price for not treating me with enough respect." Hans rolled over, and spit at Jistap.
"I'll never submit to you Jistap, never!"
Jistap's hand flew back, and it looked like he was about to strike Hans, when he suddenly calmed down. "Hans, Hans, I knew you would act like this. I said to myself, 'Hans is an idealist. He always wants to do what's right, but sometimes he forgets the important thing is not doing what's right, but doing that which will help others.'"
"There one and the same."
"No there not Hans. When we saved the Icelers, we had to lie. We had to trick the whole city. We had to imprison Rodens, who's only crime was wanting the truth to be known. We had to twist democracy, but damn it Hans we saved lives."
"Given the circumstances, I think we made the right decision."
"Even though we had to imprison Rodens, who had done no wrong?" Hans nodded. "Even though we had to disregard the peoples' will, disregard democracy?" Hans nodded again. "Can't you see it's the same thing Hans? Can't you see that? I'm still saving lives. I had to exile a few people because they would have jeopardized my mission. I had to throw democracy out the window, but I'm saving lives."
"Jistap, I am against the way you killed seven hundred, and exiled a thousand. I'm against the way you grabbed power for yourself."
"Now just a minute-"
"Let me finish. I'm against all these things, but I might have joined you in spite of all this if it were for one thing."
"My plan to cease war?"
"Your plan to conquer Fabulae. Think of all the lives you will destroy. And on top of that, you send Sulla here to attack civilians. Civilians damn it, have you no shame?"
"But Hans, once my plan is over, all war will cease. Think how many lives that will save."
"There's another way. You could do this more gradually, and without as much bloodshed. Just think about what would happen if you-"
"No! No Hans the new order can not wait." Jistap suddenly seemed very angry. "I'm not trying to convince you for my sake! I'm trying to save you hardship Hans! Are you with me or against me?"
"I'm against you all the way."
"Guards!" Two men entered the room in response to Jistap's cry. "guards, escort Hans into exile." Hans was roughly grabbed and dragged away. Jistap turned to Sulla. "While, what are you waiting for? Go finish crippling Marram."
"The usual Ishod?"
Ishod shook his head. "Sorry Jolk, but I have orders from the king himself that my lips may touch no wine. I will have some grape juice though."
Jolk gave a puzzled look as he poured a glass. "Why did the king order that?"
Ishod smiled. "I can't tell. It's a matter of national security."
"Oh really. I don't suppose you could-" a loud crash cut off Jolk's words. Ishod turned to see a drunk who had just fallen flat on his face. He went to help him up.
"Easy fellow. You've had too much to drink," Ishod said as he gently put the mans arm around his shoulder.
Talking thickly, the man gave his reply. "Yeah buddy, well you wouldn't say that if you knew the trouble I'm in. I'm a murderer you know. I've killed about a hundred Icelers. Now I can't ever go home again."
"Oh really, so what are you going to do now," Ishod asked, humoring the drunk.
"Oh stay in Dishon I guess. I can't ever go back to the city again, never again." Ishod gently set the man down in a chair. He had just barely straitened up, when Tomaz flew into his face.
"Ishod! Ishod! I've got great news, great news." Tomaz paused. "We'd better go outside though, I'm not sure it's public knowledge yet."
Ishod hesitated. "Can this wait? I was just about to-"
"Ishod, this is great news. Biggest news this century."
Ishod, his curiosity sparked, followed Tomaz out the door. Tomaz flew into a deserted ally, and waited for Ishod to catch up. Ishod had barely gotten into the ally, before Tomaz burst with the news. "Some one, or something, has attacked all of Marram's greatest cities, and destroyed them. Azom himself has been killed. Marram has withdrawn all of her troops, and is focusing all her efforts on rebuilding the cities. Reports are sketchy, but we know this for certain, the war is over!"
The New Era Chapter 3
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"Yesterday, as most of you know, Sulla successfully completed his mission, after a minor delay, to cripple Marram. I suspect by this time you all know about Hans. He has a noble heart and I am saddened that he choose not to join us, but he has made that choice nevertheless. The next thing for us to decide is, which nation shall rule Fabulae. As I told you yesterday, Livius and I talked about this choice to some extant. Once Marram was eliminated, the choice became very hard. I better let him tell you about that, since he could tell it much better than I could."
Livius jumped right into his speech. "As Jistap said, the choice was a hard one. No clear cut solution was obvious. In the end, we decided to choose Calet. Calet had many years ago conquered more then three fourths of Fabulae, spreading its language, and culture everywhere. Under Calet's domination, Fabulae became closer to world peace then it ever has before or since. For this reason, we think it would be fitting if Calet was the nation to conquer Fabulae." Several approvals were heard around the room.
"Unfortunately, Calet is currently in a period of civil war. On one side is Polad. He is obviously unsuited for the thrown. In addition to his many other abominations, he has recently betrayed his own people in a battle with Marram, causing massive losses to Calet in what would otherwise have been a victory. He has assassinated the kings son so that he could obtain the rule, and he has been receiving support from Marram.
"His rival, Miktesh, is little better. Like Polad, Miktesh has a long history of putting his own ambitions above the good of the country. Interestingly though, he appears to be changing. He recently gained possession of Agricola, the storehouse of Calet's grain. However, he compromised his advantage significantly by giving food to his enemies, and so saving civilians from the horrors of starvation."
Livius hesitated before continuing, and looked at Jistap for a single. Jistap nodded his head, and Livius proceeded. "Perez, probably the greatest military genius Fabulae has ever seen, and who served Calet for many years, has defected to Dishon, a small country located North of Calet. If we could somehow convince him to rejoin Calet, our task would be much easier. Their are many other interesting details about Calet's civil war. Dabine, Polad's right hand man, is secretly working for Miktesh, frequently sending him updates on plans Polad thinks are top secret. He also allowed both Miktesh and Perez to escape from Polad's clutches. One of Miktesh' advisors, Jole, tried to defect to Polad's side, giving Polad top secret information, but Dabine foiled his plan. Dabine himself went to pick up the information from Jole, and then destroyed it, giving Polad phoney plans. Dabine also had one of his men disguise himself as a guard to Miktesh' camp, and then kill Jole. Miktesh doesn't know any of this happened, and is still trying to figure out how Jole was killed."
Jistap, beginning to feel sorry he had given permission for this pointless excursion, cut into the conversation. "The point is, neither Miktesh or Polad is fit to rule Calet. We need to find someone in Calet who is truly worthy of that honor. Now Livius has narrowed down the options to-"
"Excuse me, sir?"
Jistap, irritated at being interrupted, answered in a exasperated tone, "Yes Gaius, what is it?"
"Sir, why not place one of us on the thrown?"
"That's ridiculous Gaius. In the first place, who would want to leave the comfort of the city for the primitive conditions of Calet?"
"I would sir."
Jistap opened his mouth to ask why, but suddenly he realized the answer. He saw in Gaius an ambition he had often seen in himself. Gaius wanted power, and he would endure any hardship to get it. Jistap realized Gaius was dangerous, the question was what to do with him. Jistap thought for a moment, and decided that he didn't want Gaius to stay in the city. Let Gaius have his little command of Calet, just as long as he remembered who was in charge. "The command of Calet is yours, Gaius. Now, in order to establish you in control, I will send a messenger to Polad and Miktesh. The messenger will tell them both that they must surrender to you, or die."
"If its all the same to you sir, could we just kill them both right off the bat. I mean, they're bound to try and get power for themselves anyway they can, and I just assume not deal with keeping them from fighting each other. Besides which-"
Jistap waved his hand, and Gaius stopped talking. "Alright Gaius, you want them killed? I'll have them killed. Whatever makes you a more effective ruler of Calet I'll do."
"Excuse me," Pericula interjected, "excuse me, but we're talking about actual lives here. You can't just kill them because it's convenient."
Jistap shook his head. "Look, Pericula, I'm really getting tired of telling you this. Fabulae can not continue on its present course any longer. The new world order will take a lot of blood but it must come about. Between taking over the city, and crippling Marram, we've killed thousands already. Two more lives aren't going to make a difference."
Pericula was silent, and Jistap continued. "Sulla, Gaius, Livius,take a ship and go to Calet. Kill Miktesh and Polad, and inform both of their officers about the new change. Sulla, you'll take command of Polad's forces. Gaius, you'll take command of Miktesh' forces. Livius, you pilot the ship back to the city. Once Sulla and Gaius have both taken all their soldiers back to Calet's capital, Caletia, I'll send Livius out in a ship to take Sulla back to the city. Gaius will remain at Caletia and await further instructions from me while he establishes his rule there. Now get moving." Gaius, Livius, and Sulla rushed out.
Livius turned to Sulla. "Alright buddy, we're coming to Polad's camp now. Polad is in his tent, sleeping. You need to kill him and any others who oppose you. You'll need this." Livius thrust a laser gun into Sulla's hand. "This puppy can cut right through the army of anybody you meet. You should also take one of these." Livius handed Sulla a small object, only slightly larger then Sulla's palm. "This little device will allow you to access the computers in the city. You'll have all of their information at your fingertips."
Gaius could see that Sulla was nervous, so he gave him a fraternal pat on the back. "I'll go with you. You might need a little help."
A beep alerted Gaius that they were rapidly approaching the drop off point. "You two, stand on that X." Gaius and Sulla followed the orders, Gaius taking a laser gun with him. The ship down close to the ground, near Polad's tent. The floor gave way beneath Gaius and Sulla, and they dropped about three meters to the ground, rolling over several times when they landed due to their inertia. A confused crowd gathered around the two.
As soon as he could stand up, Gaius held down the trigger of his gun. One blast followed another, with only a fraction of a second in between. Gaius sprayed the crowd with the laser fire, then once the crowd starting fleeing, Gaius started targeting individuals. Sulla followed his lead. As soon as every one was either dead or had ran away, Gaius pointed at Polad's tent. He and Sulla bombarded it with their fire, until little more was left of it then ashes. The ship now returned, and Gaius boarded it waving good-bye to Sulla. The ship took off.
Sulla turned around nervously. His confidence had left him when Gaius left, but he tried to push his fear out of his mind. He noticed that some were cautiously returning. He fired gun rapidly into the air, then announcing, "I am Sulla. I am your new master. Anyone who does not follow me will be killed."
"Okay Gaius, you have all your equipment?" Gaius nodded as he walked onto the X."
"Would you mind creating a little diversion for me Livius? Perhaps using the ship to shoot up the opposite side of the camp I'm on?"
Livius nodded. "I'd be glad to if it helps you out."
Kile smiled. "You what?"
Drusus returned the smile. "That's what I said. The whole tent had to be replaced, not to mention his clothes."
Kile couldn't help laughing hard. "I'll bet he was mad."
"Not as mad as Spolkes was. You should have seen his face."
"Well how much trouble did you get in for that one?"
"It would have been a lot but-"
Drusus was cut off by a loud scream, followed by several shouts, and the booming sounds of explosions. Drusus looked at Kile, who returned his confused look.
"Deka! Look out!" Drusus couldn't tell who issued the warning, but he was thankful for it. Looking up in the sky he saw a some kind of creature. A huge creature, shouting energy bolts out of it's mouth. When the bolts hit the ground, they caused an explosion, throwing everything near it any which way, and igniting anything close to it. Drusus instinctively broke into a run.
The camp had become utter chaos. The men were running every which way, fire was everywhere, dead bodies were everywhere, and the shouting was only a background noise to the sound of explosion.
An energy bolt hit the ground only a couple meters from Drusus' feet. Drusus was thrown couple dekameters, and skidded along the ground. When he came to a stop, he lay still for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had happened to him. This was a mistake. Although the fleeing soldiers had at first vacated the area where the explosion took place, they soon returned to it. As Drusus curled into a ball to try and avoid the numerous feet, he realized he was in grave danger of being trampled to death. Fortunately, another explosion not too far away, cleared the crowd for just a couple of seconds, but long enough for Drusus to get to his feet.
Drusus allowed himself to be jostled by the crowd for a couple minutes while he considered what his next course of action should be. He decided that his duty was to protect Miktesh, and fought his way through the crowd, all the way to Miktesh' tent, on the other side of the camp. Once he got to the tent, the crowd had diminished greatly. In fact, Drusus could only see about ten people, one of which was Kile. Drusus recognized the badly burned body of what once was Miktesh. The silence was unblemished. A man stood by the body. "I am Gaius," the man announced. "I am your new leader."
"I've got another report on The Watcher situation sir."
"No need, I've been monitoring the situation quite closely myself. Most interesting plan indeed. Helping Calet conquer the world by aiding it against its enemies. Most interesting plan indeed."
The one to whom these words were spoken looked strangely at his commander. "Sir, doesn't that sound familiar to you?"
"What?"
"Jistap's plan. Doesn't it sound familiar?"
Absolute horror seized the commander. "Fuck, why didn't I realize this before? Fuck me, I should have known." Both men read in each others faces the danger they were in.
"Yesterday, as most of you know, Sulla successfully completed his mission, after a minor delay, to cripple Marram. I suspect by this time you all know about Hans. He has a noble heart and I am saddened that he choose not to join us, but he has made that choice nevertheless. The next thing for us to decide is, which nation shall rule Fabulae. As I told you yesterday, Livius and I talked about this choice to some extant. Once Marram was eliminated, the choice became very hard. I better let him tell you about that, since he could tell it much better than I could."
Livius jumped right into his speech. "As Jistap said, the choice was a hard one. No clear cut solution was obvious. In the end, we decided to choose Calet. Calet had many years ago conquered more then three fourths of Fabulae, spreading its language, and culture everywhere. Under Calet's domination, Fabulae became closer to world peace then it ever has before or since. For this reason, we think it would be fitting if Calet was the nation to conquer Fabulae." Several approvals were heard around the room.
"Unfortunately, Calet is currently in a period of civil war. On one side is Polad. He is obviously unsuited for the thrown. In addition to his many other abominations, he has recently betrayed his own people in a battle with Marram, causing massive losses to Calet in what would otherwise have been a victory. He has assassinated the kings son so that he could obtain the rule, and he has been receiving support from Marram.
"His rival, Miktesh, is little better. Like Polad, Miktesh has a long history of putting his own ambitions above the good of the country. Interestingly though, he appears to be changing. He recently gained possession of Agricola, the storehouse of Calet's grain. However, he compromised his advantage significantly by giving food to his enemies, and so saving civilians from the horrors of starvation."
Livius hesitated before continuing, and looked at Jistap for a single. Jistap nodded his head, and Livius proceeded. "Perez, probably the greatest military genius Fabulae has ever seen, and who served Calet for many years, has defected to Dishon, a small country located North of Calet. If we could somehow convince him to rejoin Calet, our task would be much easier. Their are many other interesting details about Calet's civil war. Dabine, Polad's right hand man, is secretly working for Miktesh, frequently sending him updates on plans Polad thinks are top secret. He also allowed both Miktesh and Perez to escape from Polad's clutches. One of Miktesh' advisors, Jole, tried to defect to Polad's side, giving Polad top secret information, but Dabine foiled his plan. Dabine himself went to pick up the information from Jole, and then destroyed it, giving Polad phoney plans. Dabine also had one of his men disguise himself as a guard to Miktesh' camp, and then kill Jole. Miktesh doesn't know any of this happened, and is still trying to figure out how Jole was killed."
Jistap, beginning to feel sorry he had given permission for this pointless excursion, cut into the conversation. "The point is, neither Miktesh or Polad is fit to rule Calet. We need to find someone in Calet who is truly worthy of that honor. Now Livius has narrowed down the options to-"
"Excuse me, sir?"
Jistap, irritated at being interrupted, answered in a exasperated tone, "Yes Gaius, what is it?"
"Sir, why not place one of us on the thrown?"
"That's ridiculous Gaius. In the first place, who would want to leave the comfort of the city for the primitive conditions of Calet?"
"I would sir."
Jistap opened his mouth to ask why, but suddenly he realized the answer. He saw in Gaius an ambition he had often seen in himself. Gaius wanted power, and he would endure any hardship to get it. Jistap realized Gaius was dangerous, the question was what to do with him. Jistap thought for a moment, and decided that he didn't want Gaius to stay in the city. Let Gaius have his little command of Calet, just as long as he remembered who was in charge. "The command of Calet is yours, Gaius. Now, in order to establish you in control, I will send a messenger to Polad and Miktesh. The messenger will tell them both that they must surrender to you, or die."
"If its all the same to you sir, could we just kill them both right off the bat. I mean, they're bound to try and get power for themselves anyway they can, and I just assume not deal with keeping them from fighting each other. Besides which-"
Jistap waved his hand, and Gaius stopped talking. "Alright Gaius, you want them killed? I'll have them killed. Whatever makes you a more effective ruler of Calet I'll do."
"Excuse me," Pericula interjected, "excuse me, but we're talking about actual lives here. You can't just kill them because it's convenient."
Jistap shook his head. "Look, Pericula, I'm really getting tired of telling you this. Fabulae can not continue on its present course any longer. The new world order will take a lot of blood but it must come about. Between taking over the city, and crippling Marram, we've killed thousands already. Two more lives aren't going to make a difference."
Pericula was silent, and Jistap continued. "Sulla, Gaius, Livius,take a ship and go to Calet. Kill Miktesh and Polad, and inform both of their officers about the new change. Sulla, you'll take command of Polad's forces. Gaius, you'll take command of Miktesh' forces. Livius, you pilot the ship back to the city. Once Sulla and Gaius have both taken all their soldiers back to Calet's capital, Caletia, I'll send Livius out in a ship to take Sulla back to the city. Gaius will remain at Caletia and await further instructions from me while he establishes his rule there. Now get moving." Gaius, Livius, and Sulla rushed out.
Livius turned to Sulla. "Alright buddy, we're coming to Polad's camp now. Polad is in his tent, sleeping. You need to kill him and any others who oppose you. You'll need this." Livius thrust a laser gun into Sulla's hand. "This puppy can cut right through the army of anybody you meet. You should also take one of these." Livius handed Sulla a small object, only slightly larger then Sulla's palm. "This little device will allow you to access the computers in the city. You'll have all of their information at your fingertips."
Gaius could see that Sulla was nervous, so he gave him a fraternal pat on the back. "I'll go with you. You might need a little help."
A beep alerted Gaius that they were rapidly approaching the drop off point. "You two, stand on that X." Gaius and Sulla followed the orders, Gaius taking a laser gun with him. The ship down close to the ground, near Polad's tent. The floor gave way beneath Gaius and Sulla, and they dropped about three meters to the ground, rolling over several times when they landed due to their inertia. A confused crowd gathered around the two.
As soon as he could stand up, Gaius held down the trigger of his gun. One blast followed another, with only a fraction of a second in between. Gaius sprayed the crowd with the laser fire, then once the crowd starting fleeing, Gaius started targeting individuals. Sulla followed his lead. As soon as every one was either dead or had ran away, Gaius pointed at Polad's tent. He and Sulla bombarded it with their fire, until little more was left of it then ashes. The ship now returned, and Gaius boarded it waving good-bye to Sulla. The ship took off.
Sulla turned around nervously. His confidence had left him when Gaius left, but he tried to push his fear out of his mind. He noticed that some were cautiously returning. He fired gun rapidly into the air, then announcing, "I am Sulla. I am your new master. Anyone who does not follow me will be killed."
"Okay Gaius, you have all your equipment?" Gaius nodded as he walked onto the X."
"Would you mind creating a little diversion for me Livius? Perhaps using the ship to shoot up the opposite side of the camp I'm on?"
Livius nodded. "I'd be glad to if it helps you out."
Kile smiled. "You what?"
Drusus returned the smile. "That's what I said. The whole tent had to be replaced, not to mention his clothes."
Kile couldn't help laughing hard. "I'll bet he was mad."
"Not as mad as Spolkes was. You should have seen his face."
"Well how much trouble did you get in for that one?"
"It would have been a lot but-"
Drusus was cut off by a loud scream, followed by several shouts, and the booming sounds of explosions. Drusus looked at Kile, who returned his confused look.
"Deka! Look out!" Drusus couldn't tell who issued the warning, but he was thankful for it. Looking up in the sky he saw a some kind of creature. A huge creature, shouting energy bolts out of it's mouth. When the bolts hit the ground, they caused an explosion, throwing everything near it any which way, and igniting anything close to it. Drusus instinctively broke into a run.
The camp had become utter chaos. The men were running every which way, fire was everywhere, dead bodies were everywhere, and the shouting was only a background noise to the sound of explosion.
An energy bolt hit the ground only a couple meters from Drusus' feet. Drusus was thrown couple dekameters, and skidded along the ground. When he came to a stop, he lay still for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had happened to him. This was a mistake. Although the fleeing soldiers had at first vacated the area where the explosion took place, they soon returned to it. As Drusus curled into a ball to try and avoid the numerous feet, he realized he was in grave danger of being trampled to death. Fortunately, another explosion not too far away, cleared the crowd for just a couple of seconds, but long enough for Drusus to get to his feet.
Drusus allowed himself to be jostled by the crowd for a couple minutes while he considered what his next course of action should be. He decided that his duty was to protect Miktesh, and fought his way through the crowd, all the way to Miktesh' tent, on the other side of the camp. Once he got to the tent, the crowd had diminished greatly. In fact, Drusus could only see about ten people, one of which was Kile. Drusus recognized the badly burned body of what once was Miktesh. The silence was unblemished. A man stood by the body. "I am Gaius," the man announced. "I am your new leader."
"I've got another report on The Watcher situation sir."
"No need, I've been monitoring the situation quite closely myself. Most interesting plan indeed. Helping Calet conquer the world by aiding it against its enemies. Most interesting plan indeed."
The one to whom these words were spoken looked strangely at his commander. "Sir, doesn't that sound familiar to you?"
"What?"
"Jistap's plan. Doesn't it sound familiar?"
Absolute horror seized the commander. "Fuck, why didn't I realize this before? Fuck me, I should have known." Both men read in each others faces the danger they were in.
The New Era Chapter 4
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Dabine practically fell of his horse as he dismounted and ran into the camp. He recognized the man running up to meet him as Kile. Under normal circumstances, Kile would have been hostile towards Dabine, but the events of the past twenty four hours had changed his priorities. He was actually glad to see him. Under normal circumstances, Dabine would have known something was wrong when he was received as a friend, but he had too much on his mind to notice.
Dabine spoke brokenly as he gasped in air. "Kile, I came as fast as I could. I've been riding all night. I had to use three different horses. Let me speak to Miktesh, its urgent."
Kile hung his head. He mumbled a reply, but Dabine couldn't understand.
"Please, I need to talk to him now, where is he?"
Kile pointed to a mound of earth, with a rock at the head of it. "He's buried right there."
"Deka, what happened?" Kile told the story of Gaius entrance, in all the detail he could remember. He told how after Gaius had declared himself ruler, he killed all who opposed him, or who he thought opposed him. He told how over half the army had deserted since Gaius arrival, and the number was rising every hour. If things kept up, Gaius would be left without an army. He also told of Gaius new orders to go to Caletia. After telling the story, Kile's mind began to sense something was wrong, something that he had been to preoccupied to sense before. "Say, what are you doing here? Aren't you on Polad's side?" Dabine then related how he had secretly been on Miktesh' side all this time. "I'll guess I can believe that," Kile replied. "Now would be a pretty lousy time to suddenly switch allegiances."
"Actually, things aren't much better at Polad's camp. That was what I came to warn Miktesh about."
"Someone took over, like Gaius did?"
"There were two of them actually."
"No kidding. Are they as ruthless as Gaius?"
"I didn't stay to find out. I fled while they were still attacking the camp."
"Dabine, I presume." Both Kile and Dabine turned their heads in the direction of the voice. Gaius was headed toward them.
Dabine gasped, "You!"
Gaius looked surprised. "Have we met?" His expression under went an abrupt change. "Oh yes, back at Polad's camp. So what are you doing over here? Did you desert?" Dabine was too stunned to answer. Gaius grabbed his shirt and shook him violently. "I said, did you desert? Answer me damn it."
"You killed Polad. I fled."
"You son of a bitch, Sulla was your new master. You were to answer him, and you deserted him, a crime punishable by death."
"Now just a minute, I-"
Dabine was cut off as Gaius pushed him onto the ground. Before Dabine could get up, Gaius pulled his laser gun out of his belt and fired. Dabine's body jerked as the energy flowed through it, and then lay still, dead.
Gaius pointed the laser gun at Kile. "That could be you. Anyone who deserts will be killed. If you don't stop the problem of all the deserters, I will kill you. Do you understand?" Kile nodded, and Gaius turned around and walked off.
Later that afternoon, Drusus, Kile, Kirtten, and Jot all met in a tent. The purpose of the meeting was to decide how they should react to the events of the past two days. Kile began the meeting by relating his encounter of the past few days.
"Fascinating," Jot observed. "So Dabine was on our side all this time?"
Kile nodded. "That's what he says at least, and I believe him."
Drusus shook his head. "I don't get it. How get Gaius be at Polad's camp, and then come back to conquer our camp all in the same day? It's at least one day and night of straight traveling"
Kile shrugged. "There's a lot of things I don't understand about Gaius. What was that monster that helped him take over? What is that thing that sends fire into someone's body, and kills them? Why did he want to take over Miktesh' camp in the first place?"
"Gaius is undoubtably aided by some kind of magic. That much we know. How he is able to manipulate the magic we may never know. We should act with what we know," Kirtten said. There were murmurs of agreement from everyone else. "I don't know about you," Kirtten continued, "but acting on what I know, I'm getting out of here. My allegiance was to Miktesh, not to Gaius. Furthermore, I refuse to serve under someone whose always threatening to kill me."
"Well we have two choices," Jot said in reply. "We can either desert, like Kirtten suggests, or we can stay here. If we stay here, we'll have to try and stop the deserters if we want to avoid death from Gaius."
Kirtten was puzzled. "Jot, what possible reason could you have for staying here?"
"To make sure Gaius doesn't abuse the soldiers."
Kile snorted. "Gaius does what he wants, and there's nothing anybody can do about it."
Drusus agreed. "He obviously wants command of this army very bad, which is reason enough for me to make sure he doesn't get it. I say we encourage deserters, and the best way to do that is to set an example."
Jot shook his head. "Where will we go? We might be recognized if we stay in Calet."
Drusus shrugged. "I think I'll flee to Dishon. It's a nice little country now that the war with Marram is over, another thing I don't understand but I won't get into that. Calet is not my native country, and I have no strong ties here. Your all welcome to your own decisions off course."
"I'm with you," Kile said. Jot and Kirtten expressed the same opinion.
Drusus smiled. "Good. Lets leave tonight after Gaius is asleep."
Azom took another breath, and pushed hard. The rubble held firm, but he pressed against it harder. He had been trapped under the wreckage for three days now, or was it four? Already he was beginning to lose track of time. Azom rested for a second, before throwing himself at the wall of wreckage again. He pushed against it with all his strength, but it still didn't budge. Feeling tired, he rested against the sides of the tunnel.
About three days ago, Sulla had attacked Azom in his ship well crippling Marram. Azom had been in his palace when the walls had collapsed on him, and Sulla had read his life signs as non-existant. The Teacher had confirmed Sulla's idea that Azom was dead. However, both the sensors, and the Teacher were wrong. Azom was a member of a ancient species. As far as he knew, he was the only one of them left alive. Azom's parents were thought to be the last of the race, and now Azom was the sole survivor. Nobody knew anymore what the race had been like, or what it's characteristics are. All that information had been lost in antiquity. Azom's parents died when he was two years old, and the only information he had been able to gather about his race was from observing himself.
Needless to say, Azom's information amounted to little. For about four hours after Sulla had confirmed his death, Azom had remained in a deathlike state. Then, he mysteriously arose. He almost felt like he had been dead, but he didn't know why. Could it be that his species could rise from the dead? Azom had briefly pondered that solution, but dismissed it. If his species could rise from the dead, his parents would still be alive. Azom just filled the mystery away in his brain under things he would probably never know. Right now the only important thing was getting out.
Azom had been trying to dig himself out from under the wreckage ever since he awoke. That he had eaten nothing during this time did not concern him, he was known to go for weeks without eating. Food just didn't seem important to his survival, however back in the palace he often ate just for enjoyment.
Azom could sense he was not far from the surface, but the last wall of rubble was proving to be one of the most difficult. Azom, standing up from his rest, rammed himself into the wall. He could feel it give way a little, and encouraged, rammed himself into it again. The rubble shifted, and almost fell away. On the third try, it gave way.
Azom stepped into the surface, and covered his eyes to protect them from the glaring sunlight. In the palace, Azom usually kept everything dark. He hated the light and avoided it whenever possible. He stepped into a shaded ally.
"Hey buddy, what are ya doing in here? This here's my territory."
Azom turned to see a drunken beggar, making rude gestures at him. "I beg your pardon," Azom said in an arrogant voice.
"Get your ass out of my ally you big son of a bitch."
Azom grabbed the man by the soldier. "Do you know who I am? I am Azom, your king. You will not uze zuch wordz with me."
The man had obviously left reason behind with his drinks. "Shut up you bastard, I don't care who you are. Your in my ally so scram."
Azom knew he had incredible strength, probably also a characteristic of his species. With one hand he lifted the man up into the air, grabbing him by the head. The man tried to punch Azom, but hit his hands against a body like steel. Azom crushed the mans skull with his hand, and dropped the lifeless body to the ground.
"Azom, you alive." Azom turned to see Azet, flying down to greet him. "I thought you were dead for sure."
"I waz. I have come back from the dead. Death has no hold on my kind."
"Are you sure?"
"Pozitive. I am invincible to death. What has happened?"
Azet shook his head. "Nobody's sure what has happened, but whatever it was, it was terrible. Something destroyed all of our major cities. I mean completely destroyed them, not a building left standing or any survivor on the street. The empire of Marram seems to be crumbling. All our enemies are taking advantage of our weakness by attacking now. You were presumed dead, and now their is fighting over the thrown. A hell of a time for a civil war, but it's happening."
"What about Dizhon?"
"Who cares about Dishon? The war on them has been temporarily called off. We'll conquer them once we get back on our feet.
Azom, his good sense blocked by his ego, declared himself invincible. He believed he had been killed when the palace fell on him, but came back from death, forgetting about the holes in that theory, or perhaps more precisely, choosing to overlook them. "I am invincible. Zince I cannot be killed, I will conquer Dizhon on my own. When Marram recoverz, I will give it to her az a trophy."
"What?"
Azom turned his scaly body. His face looked like a skull. "I am going to Dizhon. Are you coming?"
"Well, yeah I guess. Might as well, but are you sure a two-bit country like Dizhon is where we should be focusing our attention in a crisis like this?"
Azom, his judgement clouded by his ego, didn't seem to hear. "With my invincibility, I zhall conquer, and gain rezpect from my people. I zhall become a legend, and I will never die." Azom trudged off in the direction of Dishon.
Dabine practically fell of his horse as he dismounted and ran into the camp. He recognized the man running up to meet him as Kile. Under normal circumstances, Kile would have been hostile towards Dabine, but the events of the past twenty four hours had changed his priorities. He was actually glad to see him. Under normal circumstances, Dabine would have known something was wrong when he was received as a friend, but he had too much on his mind to notice.
Dabine spoke brokenly as he gasped in air. "Kile, I came as fast as I could. I've been riding all night. I had to use three different horses. Let me speak to Miktesh, its urgent."
Kile hung his head. He mumbled a reply, but Dabine couldn't understand.
"Please, I need to talk to him now, where is he?"
Kile pointed to a mound of earth, with a rock at the head of it. "He's buried right there."
"Deka, what happened?" Kile told the story of Gaius entrance, in all the detail he could remember. He told how after Gaius had declared himself ruler, he killed all who opposed him, or who he thought opposed him. He told how over half the army had deserted since Gaius arrival, and the number was rising every hour. If things kept up, Gaius would be left without an army. He also told of Gaius new orders to go to Caletia. After telling the story, Kile's mind began to sense something was wrong, something that he had been to preoccupied to sense before. "Say, what are you doing here? Aren't you on Polad's side?" Dabine then related how he had secretly been on Miktesh' side all this time. "I'll guess I can believe that," Kile replied. "Now would be a pretty lousy time to suddenly switch allegiances."
"Actually, things aren't much better at Polad's camp. That was what I came to warn Miktesh about."
"Someone took over, like Gaius did?"
"There were two of them actually."
"No kidding. Are they as ruthless as Gaius?"
"I didn't stay to find out. I fled while they were still attacking the camp."
"Dabine, I presume." Both Kile and Dabine turned their heads in the direction of the voice. Gaius was headed toward them.
Dabine gasped, "You!"
Gaius looked surprised. "Have we met?" His expression under went an abrupt change. "Oh yes, back at Polad's camp. So what are you doing over here? Did you desert?" Dabine was too stunned to answer. Gaius grabbed his shirt and shook him violently. "I said, did you desert? Answer me damn it."
"You killed Polad. I fled."
"You son of a bitch, Sulla was your new master. You were to answer him, and you deserted him, a crime punishable by death."
"Now just a minute, I-"
Dabine was cut off as Gaius pushed him onto the ground. Before Dabine could get up, Gaius pulled his laser gun out of his belt and fired. Dabine's body jerked as the energy flowed through it, and then lay still, dead.
Gaius pointed the laser gun at Kile. "That could be you. Anyone who deserts will be killed. If you don't stop the problem of all the deserters, I will kill you. Do you understand?" Kile nodded, and Gaius turned around and walked off.
Later that afternoon, Drusus, Kile, Kirtten, and Jot all met in a tent. The purpose of the meeting was to decide how they should react to the events of the past two days. Kile began the meeting by relating his encounter of the past few days.
"Fascinating," Jot observed. "So Dabine was on our side all this time?"
Kile nodded. "That's what he says at least, and I believe him."
Drusus shook his head. "I don't get it. How get Gaius be at Polad's camp, and then come back to conquer our camp all in the same day? It's at least one day and night of straight traveling"
Kile shrugged. "There's a lot of things I don't understand about Gaius. What was that monster that helped him take over? What is that thing that sends fire into someone's body, and kills them? Why did he want to take over Miktesh' camp in the first place?"
"Gaius is undoubtably aided by some kind of magic. That much we know. How he is able to manipulate the magic we may never know. We should act with what we know," Kirtten said. There were murmurs of agreement from everyone else. "I don't know about you," Kirtten continued, "but acting on what I know, I'm getting out of here. My allegiance was to Miktesh, not to Gaius. Furthermore, I refuse to serve under someone whose always threatening to kill me."
"Well we have two choices," Jot said in reply. "We can either desert, like Kirtten suggests, or we can stay here. If we stay here, we'll have to try and stop the deserters if we want to avoid death from Gaius."
Kirtten was puzzled. "Jot, what possible reason could you have for staying here?"
"To make sure Gaius doesn't abuse the soldiers."
Kile snorted. "Gaius does what he wants, and there's nothing anybody can do about it."
Drusus agreed. "He obviously wants command of this army very bad, which is reason enough for me to make sure he doesn't get it. I say we encourage deserters, and the best way to do that is to set an example."
Jot shook his head. "Where will we go? We might be recognized if we stay in Calet."
Drusus shrugged. "I think I'll flee to Dishon. It's a nice little country now that the war with Marram is over, another thing I don't understand but I won't get into that. Calet is not my native country, and I have no strong ties here. Your all welcome to your own decisions off course."
"I'm with you," Kile said. Jot and Kirtten expressed the same opinion.
Drusus smiled. "Good. Lets leave tonight after Gaius is asleep."
Azom took another breath, and pushed hard. The rubble held firm, but he pressed against it harder. He had been trapped under the wreckage for three days now, or was it four? Already he was beginning to lose track of time. Azom rested for a second, before throwing himself at the wall of wreckage again. He pushed against it with all his strength, but it still didn't budge. Feeling tired, he rested against the sides of the tunnel.
About three days ago, Sulla had attacked Azom in his ship well crippling Marram. Azom had been in his palace when the walls had collapsed on him, and Sulla had read his life signs as non-existant. The Teacher had confirmed Sulla's idea that Azom was dead. However, both the sensors, and the Teacher were wrong. Azom was a member of a ancient species. As far as he knew, he was the only one of them left alive. Azom's parents were thought to be the last of the race, and now Azom was the sole survivor. Nobody knew anymore what the race had been like, or what it's characteristics are. All that information had been lost in antiquity. Azom's parents died when he was two years old, and the only information he had been able to gather about his race was from observing himself.
Needless to say, Azom's information amounted to little. For about four hours after Sulla had confirmed his death, Azom had remained in a deathlike state. Then, he mysteriously arose. He almost felt like he had been dead, but he didn't know why. Could it be that his species could rise from the dead? Azom had briefly pondered that solution, but dismissed it. If his species could rise from the dead, his parents would still be alive. Azom just filled the mystery away in his brain under things he would probably never know. Right now the only important thing was getting out.
Azom had been trying to dig himself out from under the wreckage ever since he awoke. That he had eaten nothing during this time did not concern him, he was known to go for weeks without eating. Food just didn't seem important to his survival, however back in the palace he often ate just for enjoyment.
Azom could sense he was not far from the surface, but the last wall of rubble was proving to be one of the most difficult. Azom, standing up from his rest, rammed himself into the wall. He could feel it give way a little, and encouraged, rammed himself into it again. The rubble shifted, and almost fell away. On the third try, it gave way.
Azom stepped into the surface, and covered his eyes to protect them from the glaring sunlight. In the palace, Azom usually kept everything dark. He hated the light and avoided it whenever possible. He stepped into a shaded ally.
"Hey buddy, what are ya doing in here? This here's my territory."
Azom turned to see a drunken beggar, making rude gestures at him. "I beg your pardon," Azom said in an arrogant voice.
"Get your ass out of my ally you big son of a bitch."
Azom grabbed the man by the soldier. "Do you know who I am? I am Azom, your king. You will not uze zuch wordz with me."
The man had obviously left reason behind with his drinks. "Shut up you bastard, I don't care who you are. Your in my ally so scram."
Azom knew he had incredible strength, probably also a characteristic of his species. With one hand he lifted the man up into the air, grabbing him by the head. The man tried to punch Azom, but hit his hands against a body like steel. Azom crushed the mans skull with his hand, and dropped the lifeless body to the ground.
"Azom, you alive." Azom turned to see Azet, flying down to greet him. "I thought you were dead for sure."
"I waz. I have come back from the dead. Death has no hold on my kind."
"Are you sure?"
"Pozitive. I am invincible to death. What has happened?"
Azet shook his head. "Nobody's sure what has happened, but whatever it was, it was terrible. Something destroyed all of our major cities. I mean completely destroyed them, not a building left standing or any survivor on the street. The empire of Marram seems to be crumbling. All our enemies are taking advantage of our weakness by attacking now. You were presumed dead, and now their is fighting over the thrown. A hell of a time for a civil war, but it's happening."
"What about Dizhon?"
"Who cares about Dishon? The war on them has been temporarily called off. We'll conquer them once we get back on our feet.
Azom, his good sense blocked by his ego, declared himself invincible. He believed he had been killed when the palace fell on him, but came back from death, forgetting about the holes in that theory, or perhaps more precisely, choosing to overlook them. "I am invincible. Zince I cannot be killed, I will conquer Dizhon on my own. When Marram recoverz, I will give it to her az a trophy."
"What?"
Azom turned his scaly body. His face looked like a skull. "I am going to Dizhon. Are you coming?"
"Well, yeah I guess. Might as well, but are you sure a two-bit country like Dizhon is where we should be focusing our attention in a crisis like this?"
Azom, his judgement clouded by his ego, didn't seem to hear. "With my invincibility, I zhall conquer, and gain rezpect from my people. I zhall become a legend, and I will never die." Azom trudged off in the direction of Dishon.
The New Era Chapter 5
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
A sharp shrill sound aroused Gaius from his sleep. He groggily got out of bed, and ordered the lights to be put on. Soon he remembered he was not in the city, but in a tent in what used to be Miktesh's camp. Gaius groped through the dark to find his computer pad, connecting him with the rest of the city. He pressed a button, and Jistap's angry face appeared on the screen.
"Gaius, what the hell are you doing?"
Gaius yawned and scratched his head, still stupid from sleep. "I was sleeping sir. Why?"
"Gaius, almost all of your senior officers have deserted."
Gaius snapped into alertness so quickly that even Jistap was surprised. "What?"
"Drusus, Jot, Kile, and Kirtten all left the camp just a few hours ago."
"That's impossible. I gave strict orders that no one was to leave the camp without my permission."
"Gaius the guards don't answer to you. No one answers to you. Nobody cares about you. The only way you mantain control in that camp is by fear."
"So?"
"Gaius these people have no reason to follow you. Your their enemy. Really, your situation is pathetic. You've lost two thirds of your army already."
"Two thirds? That's a little high. It was only one half."
"It was only one half when you went to sleep you dolt. Your senior officers weren't the only ones who deserted to night."
"What?"
"Gaius, you must be the biggest idiot on Fabulae. Instead of peacefully announcing that you are ruler of this army, you launched an all out attack on them. More then one fourth of your army fled right then and there, and never returned. You know the arrival of the new world order will cause enough blood shed as it is, without killing more."
"I had to show these people I meant business."
"Oh shut up. You don't know how bad I wish I had never sent you out in the first place. I wish I had never listened to you. I should have kept Miktesh alive. Despite his flaws he's better then you." Gaius grew red with anger, but kept silent. "Sending you out here was the biggest mistake I've ever made, and sending Sulla was the second biggest."
"What's happening with Sulla?"
"His death is really your fault Gaius."
"His death?"
"Yes, you led him in a bloody takeover of the camp. Got the soldiers furious at him, and then you left. Then once the soldiers realized how timid he really was, they killed him."
"The bloody bastards."
"Anyway, I can see now that your obviously incompetent to handle this command. I don't know what I'll do yet but this is certain, your through as the leader of the new world order."
"You can't do that!"
Jistap leaned forward. "Damn it Gaius, don't you ever, ever forget whose in charge here. You will obey me without question."
Gaius swallowed. Only with great difficulty was he able to contain his anger. "Yes sir."
"Good. I'll contact you soon. Until then, stay put. Don't move this army anywhere. If you can, try and get on the good side of the soldiers." Jistap shut of his monitor, and Gaius pad also turned off.
Gaius screamed as loud as he could. Then he screamed again, at the same volume. He rushed out of his tent, and expected to vent his anger on the soldier he had forced to guard his door. The soldier wasn't there, however. "He's deserted" Gaius thought. "All of these blasted soldiers are deserting. It's their fault I'm in this much trouble. It's their fault I'm losing the command." Gaius pulled his laser gun from his belt, and shot in anger several times at the tents near him. He heard screams, and shouts, followed by the silence. He felt better, and went back to sleep.
After shutting off the computer, Jistap turned, still angry, to the table where other ten sat. "The idiot Gaius is going to blow this whole operation. I need to act fast before he ruins my dreams. I need options, gentlemen."
Livius spoke up. "Perhaps sir, our greatest mistake, my greatest mistake, was under estimating the power of nationalism. The people are Caletians, and they want to follow a fellow Caletian."
Lauto spoke up. She was a quiet woman, of twenty two years of age. "I think the biggest problem is that they are afraid of Gaius, and are deserting to save their lives. As long as the soldiers are paid well and kept happy, they won't care who they serve or why."
"I couldn't agree more," Jistap said. "I need to send someone out there who has some sense. Then, everything will fall into place." Jistap suddenly turned to Bakes. Bakes was not seated at the round table with the rest of them, but watching a monitor in the coroner.
"Are you keeping an eye on Gaius?" Bakes nodded. "How's he taking it?"
Bakes shook his head. "Not good. He just attacked his own tents, killing many of his own men will they were asleep."
"Why?"
Bakes shrugged. "He was mad I guess."
"The crazy bastard. I have to stop him now."
Pericula bolted up from her seat and headed toward the door. "Pericula, what are you doing?" Jistap yelled out. Pericula kept walking and didn't answer. "Executor, automatic door locks."
Even though she knew the door was locked, Pericula tried to open it anyway. She then turned to face Jistap. "What are you doing?" he repeated.
"I'm through Jistap. I'll have no part of this any longer. You've caused to much bloodshed already, and if you keep this up, you'll cause even more. Gaius is abusing his power. I warned you that power would get abused. I will not be a party to these crimes. You can exile me like Hans."
Jistap clapped his hands in glee. "You hate bloodshed, and you hate the abuse of power. You'll be the perfect person to replace Gaius."
Pericula shouted angrily, "No! I'm through! Finished! You can find someone else!"
Jistap smiled. "Let's make a deal. You replace Gaius, and I won't execute your brother Julius."
"What?"
Jistap's smile broadened. "We caught him planning to assassinate me. He was even trying to borrow a dagger from his friend to do it with. If you replace Gaius, I'll let him get away with exile. If you refuse," Jistap threw up his hands, "while his offense is punishable by death."
Pericula hung her head. "Alright, you win," she mumbled.
Jistap jumped up and down in glee. "Excellent! I'll send you in Livius out in a small ship." Jistap nodded to Livius. "Livius, I'll take your suggestion about Caletian rule into account. On the way to the camp, you'll pick up Drusus, Jot, Kile, and Kirtten, the four senior officers who deserted. When you arrive at the camp, you are to make those four directly under you, but give the appearance that you share power with them equally.
"I also want Gaius to be totally humiliated for his disobedience. He is to be placed under the authority of the four senior officers. He is not allowed to breath without their permission. I want this made absolutely clear to him." Pericula nodded. "Good, now be off."
"Well we've got enough water for another couple of days, but we could use some more food," Kirtten decided.
Kile nodded. "I suppose we should ask for food there." Kile pointed to a house, less then a quarter mile away.
Drusus agreed. "Lets go."
As they were walking toward the house, Kile had an idea. "Since were still in military uniform, they might know we're deserters," he said. "I propose we pretend we're scouts, returning from a mission. I will pose as our leader." The others agreed with this plan.
Upon arriving at the house, an old man and woman came forth to meet them before they had even reached the door. "Excuse me, good people," Kile began. "We are scouts, returning from a mission. We need food and we are wondering if you could help us."
The old woman was critical. "Your scouts did you say?"
"Yes ma'am. My name is Kile," to late Kile realized his error. Although he doubted these common people would know much about politics, his name was nevertheless not unknown among knowledgeable circles. As a precaution, he quickly added, "but I prefer to be called Kai." Kile realized how idiotic his words sounded, but he tried to pretend he talked that way all the time.
The old woman turned to her husband. She was about to speak, but then Drusus shouted, "Look out!"
All eyes followed Drusus' pointed hand into the sky. The monster that had aided Gaius had returned. "Run!" Jot yelled. All four officers took to their heels, while the old man and lady dashed into their house.
The monster flew directly above the officers, only about one meter above them. A human dropped out of it, and fell to the ground. She landed right in the middle of the fleeing four. She was dressed just like Gaius, and like him she also carried a laser gun on her belt.
She landed in a crouched position. Before she could get to her feet, Drusus kicked her in the face. She fell flat on the ground. "Run," he shouted. "I'll take care of her."
"No wait," the stranger yelled, sitting up. "I'm not like Gaius. I'm a friend." The other three kept on running. Drusus kicked her again. She fell to the ground and this time did not rise. Drusus stood ready, but she didn't give him a reason to attack. She lay still, as she said, "I'm not like Gaius. I'm a friend."
"Who are you?"
"I am one of Gaius' one people. I've come to stop him."
Drusus helped her up. "I may be crazy, but I believe you," he said.
The other three had stopped their flight, and had circled back to Drusus and Pericula. They approached apprehensively. "It's all right," Drusus called out. "She's a friend."
The monster circled back and landed by the them. The four officers started to run, but Pericula reassured them. "It's all right," she called out. "It's not a monster, only a mode of transportation." Cautiously, they came back. "Get in," Pericula said. "We have a lot to talk about."
Once the ship had taken off, Pericula began her explanation. "I'll be frank," she said. "My people posses technology that is beyond your wildest dreams. We want to use this technology to-" Pericula chose her words carefully "-to help Calet. We plan to reestablish Calet to her former glory and more. We want complete domination of Fabulae for Calet."
Drusus broke in. "Why would you want that. Wouldn't you want it for yourselves instead of Calet?"
Pericula decided it was best not to reveal everything, at least not right away. "That's our little secret. If you prove yourselves trustworthy, you'll find out in time. Now then, back to complete domination for Calet. We couldn't do anything until your civil war was over. That's why we sent two of our men to take over each army, and bring them to Caletia for reunification. Unfortunately, Gaius proved to be disobedient. He was not authorized to kill anyone-" Pericula cringed inside, knowing that was a lie, but did not show any outward indication of that "-yet I trust you know he did in fact, kill several.
"I was sent to take over from Gaius. However, my people understand that Caletians will want to follow other Caletians. That is why you four are to have the appearance of being equal in power with me. Gaius, as part of his punishment for disobeying orders, will be under your complete and total command. I trust I can count on your support."
The four officers exchanged glances at each other. Jot spoke. "Your words are good. If your people truly want to help Calet, we will give you all the support you need." The others joined in affirming Jot's statement.
Pericula smiled. "Good. Together, we can make Calet strong again."
A sharp shrill sound aroused Gaius from his sleep. He groggily got out of bed, and ordered the lights to be put on. Soon he remembered he was not in the city, but in a tent in what used to be Miktesh's camp. Gaius groped through the dark to find his computer pad, connecting him with the rest of the city. He pressed a button, and Jistap's angry face appeared on the screen.
"Gaius, what the hell are you doing?"
Gaius yawned and scratched his head, still stupid from sleep. "I was sleeping sir. Why?"
"Gaius, almost all of your senior officers have deserted."
Gaius snapped into alertness so quickly that even Jistap was surprised. "What?"
"Drusus, Jot, Kile, and Kirtten all left the camp just a few hours ago."
"That's impossible. I gave strict orders that no one was to leave the camp without my permission."
"Gaius the guards don't answer to you. No one answers to you. Nobody cares about you. The only way you mantain control in that camp is by fear."
"So?"
"Gaius these people have no reason to follow you. Your their enemy. Really, your situation is pathetic. You've lost two thirds of your army already."
"Two thirds? That's a little high. It was only one half."
"It was only one half when you went to sleep you dolt. Your senior officers weren't the only ones who deserted to night."
"What?"
"Gaius, you must be the biggest idiot on Fabulae. Instead of peacefully announcing that you are ruler of this army, you launched an all out attack on them. More then one fourth of your army fled right then and there, and never returned. You know the arrival of the new world order will cause enough blood shed as it is, without killing more."
"I had to show these people I meant business."
"Oh shut up. You don't know how bad I wish I had never sent you out in the first place. I wish I had never listened to you. I should have kept Miktesh alive. Despite his flaws he's better then you." Gaius grew red with anger, but kept silent. "Sending you out here was the biggest mistake I've ever made, and sending Sulla was the second biggest."
"What's happening with Sulla?"
"His death is really your fault Gaius."
"His death?"
"Yes, you led him in a bloody takeover of the camp. Got the soldiers furious at him, and then you left. Then once the soldiers realized how timid he really was, they killed him."
"The bloody bastards."
"Anyway, I can see now that your obviously incompetent to handle this command. I don't know what I'll do yet but this is certain, your through as the leader of the new world order."
"You can't do that!"
Jistap leaned forward. "Damn it Gaius, don't you ever, ever forget whose in charge here. You will obey me without question."
Gaius swallowed. Only with great difficulty was he able to contain his anger. "Yes sir."
"Good. I'll contact you soon. Until then, stay put. Don't move this army anywhere. If you can, try and get on the good side of the soldiers." Jistap shut of his monitor, and Gaius pad also turned off.
Gaius screamed as loud as he could. Then he screamed again, at the same volume. He rushed out of his tent, and expected to vent his anger on the soldier he had forced to guard his door. The soldier wasn't there, however. "He's deserted" Gaius thought. "All of these blasted soldiers are deserting. It's their fault I'm in this much trouble. It's their fault I'm losing the command." Gaius pulled his laser gun from his belt, and shot in anger several times at the tents near him. He heard screams, and shouts, followed by the silence. He felt better, and went back to sleep.
After shutting off the computer, Jistap turned, still angry, to the table where other ten sat. "The idiot Gaius is going to blow this whole operation. I need to act fast before he ruins my dreams. I need options, gentlemen."
Livius spoke up. "Perhaps sir, our greatest mistake, my greatest mistake, was under estimating the power of nationalism. The people are Caletians, and they want to follow a fellow Caletian."
Lauto spoke up. She was a quiet woman, of twenty two years of age. "I think the biggest problem is that they are afraid of Gaius, and are deserting to save their lives. As long as the soldiers are paid well and kept happy, they won't care who they serve or why."
"I couldn't agree more," Jistap said. "I need to send someone out there who has some sense. Then, everything will fall into place." Jistap suddenly turned to Bakes. Bakes was not seated at the round table with the rest of them, but watching a monitor in the coroner.
"Are you keeping an eye on Gaius?" Bakes nodded. "How's he taking it?"
Bakes shook his head. "Not good. He just attacked his own tents, killing many of his own men will they were asleep."
"Why?"
Bakes shrugged. "He was mad I guess."
"The crazy bastard. I have to stop him now."
Pericula bolted up from her seat and headed toward the door. "Pericula, what are you doing?" Jistap yelled out. Pericula kept walking and didn't answer. "Executor, automatic door locks."
Even though she knew the door was locked, Pericula tried to open it anyway. She then turned to face Jistap. "What are you doing?" he repeated.
"I'm through Jistap. I'll have no part of this any longer. You've caused to much bloodshed already, and if you keep this up, you'll cause even more. Gaius is abusing his power. I warned you that power would get abused. I will not be a party to these crimes. You can exile me like Hans."
Jistap clapped his hands in glee. "You hate bloodshed, and you hate the abuse of power. You'll be the perfect person to replace Gaius."
Pericula shouted angrily, "No! I'm through! Finished! You can find someone else!"
Jistap smiled. "Let's make a deal. You replace Gaius, and I won't execute your brother Julius."
"What?"
Jistap's smile broadened. "We caught him planning to assassinate me. He was even trying to borrow a dagger from his friend to do it with. If you replace Gaius, I'll let him get away with exile. If you refuse," Jistap threw up his hands, "while his offense is punishable by death."
Pericula hung her head. "Alright, you win," she mumbled.
Jistap jumped up and down in glee. "Excellent! I'll send you in Livius out in a small ship." Jistap nodded to Livius. "Livius, I'll take your suggestion about Caletian rule into account. On the way to the camp, you'll pick up Drusus, Jot, Kile, and Kirtten, the four senior officers who deserted. When you arrive at the camp, you are to make those four directly under you, but give the appearance that you share power with them equally.
"I also want Gaius to be totally humiliated for his disobedience. He is to be placed under the authority of the four senior officers. He is not allowed to breath without their permission. I want this made absolutely clear to him." Pericula nodded. "Good, now be off."
"Well we've got enough water for another couple of days, but we could use some more food," Kirtten decided.
Kile nodded. "I suppose we should ask for food there." Kile pointed to a house, less then a quarter mile away.
Drusus agreed. "Lets go."
As they were walking toward the house, Kile had an idea. "Since were still in military uniform, they might know we're deserters," he said. "I propose we pretend we're scouts, returning from a mission. I will pose as our leader." The others agreed with this plan.
Upon arriving at the house, an old man and woman came forth to meet them before they had even reached the door. "Excuse me, good people," Kile began. "We are scouts, returning from a mission. We need food and we are wondering if you could help us."
The old woman was critical. "Your scouts did you say?"
"Yes ma'am. My name is Kile," to late Kile realized his error. Although he doubted these common people would know much about politics, his name was nevertheless not unknown among knowledgeable circles. As a precaution, he quickly added, "but I prefer to be called Kai." Kile realized how idiotic his words sounded, but he tried to pretend he talked that way all the time.
The old woman turned to her husband. She was about to speak, but then Drusus shouted, "Look out!"
All eyes followed Drusus' pointed hand into the sky. The monster that had aided Gaius had returned. "Run!" Jot yelled. All four officers took to their heels, while the old man and lady dashed into their house.
The monster flew directly above the officers, only about one meter above them. A human dropped out of it, and fell to the ground. She landed right in the middle of the fleeing four. She was dressed just like Gaius, and like him she also carried a laser gun on her belt.
She landed in a crouched position. Before she could get to her feet, Drusus kicked her in the face. She fell flat on the ground. "Run," he shouted. "I'll take care of her."
"No wait," the stranger yelled, sitting up. "I'm not like Gaius. I'm a friend." The other three kept on running. Drusus kicked her again. She fell to the ground and this time did not rise. Drusus stood ready, but she didn't give him a reason to attack. She lay still, as she said, "I'm not like Gaius. I'm a friend."
"Who are you?"
"I am one of Gaius' one people. I've come to stop him."
Drusus helped her up. "I may be crazy, but I believe you," he said.
The other three had stopped their flight, and had circled back to Drusus and Pericula. They approached apprehensively. "It's all right," Drusus called out. "She's a friend."
The monster circled back and landed by the them. The four officers started to run, but Pericula reassured them. "It's all right," she called out. "It's not a monster, only a mode of transportation." Cautiously, they came back. "Get in," Pericula said. "We have a lot to talk about."
Once the ship had taken off, Pericula began her explanation. "I'll be frank," she said. "My people posses technology that is beyond your wildest dreams. We want to use this technology to-" Pericula chose her words carefully "-to help Calet. We plan to reestablish Calet to her former glory and more. We want complete domination of Fabulae for Calet."
Drusus broke in. "Why would you want that. Wouldn't you want it for yourselves instead of Calet?"
Pericula decided it was best not to reveal everything, at least not right away. "That's our little secret. If you prove yourselves trustworthy, you'll find out in time. Now then, back to complete domination for Calet. We couldn't do anything until your civil war was over. That's why we sent two of our men to take over each army, and bring them to Caletia for reunification. Unfortunately, Gaius proved to be disobedient. He was not authorized to kill anyone-" Pericula cringed inside, knowing that was a lie, but did not show any outward indication of that "-yet I trust you know he did in fact, kill several.
"I was sent to take over from Gaius. However, my people understand that Caletians will want to follow other Caletians. That is why you four are to have the appearance of being equal in power with me. Gaius, as part of his punishment for disobeying orders, will be under your complete and total command. I trust I can count on your support."
The four officers exchanged glances at each other. Jot spoke. "Your words are good. If your people truly want to help Calet, we will give you all the support you need." The others joined in affirming Jot's statement.
Pericula smiled. "Good. Together, we can make Calet strong again."
The New Era Chapter 6
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
The ship landed smoothly on the ground. Pericula said good-bye to Livius, and got out, followed by the four senior officers. Pericula had thought it best to exit the ship about a kilometer away from the camp so that the soldiers didn't get scared when they saw it. The five walking back to camp.
Gaius cursed the weather, and closed his eyes, as he put his head down on his bed. He had known that he wouldn't be able to adjust the temperature in Calet like he had in the city, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. "Don't worry," he told himself. "I may be a little uncomfortable, but I still have the power I want." Power, the word echoed in his mind. It was the one thing he had dedicated his whole life to getting, and the more he had, the more he wanted. Last night he had not slept well, worried about Jistap's threat to take away his power. This morning, his mood was much better. He had decided that Jistap's threat had no teeth behind it. Jistap wouldn't dare make an enemy of him. Gaius smiled, Jistap knew how dangerous he was.
Gaius bolted upright. He could stand this weather any longer, something had to be done. He marched outside of his tent, and happened to see an officer passing by. "Hey, you," Gaius called out.
The officer came running. When he reached Gaius, he bowed low to the ground, terrified. "What do you wish, my lord?"
"I'm humid."
The anxiety the officer was feeling showed on his face. It was clear he didn't know how to respond. "Yes sir."
"Well don't just stand there, do something about it!" Gaius face flamed red as he waved his hands in anger.
The officer looked around nervously, and swallowed. "Sir, we don't exactly-"
A soldier ran up to Gaius, saving the officer from his dilemma. After bowing to Gaius he announced, "the four senior officers have returned sir."
Gaius' eyes lit up. "Is that so? They think they can just waltz on back after all the trouble they've caused me? I'll make them sorry they ever turned against me." Gaius grabbed his laser gun from his belt, and held it tightly. The soldier led the way, and Gaius followed.
After walking half-way through the camp, the soldier pointed to a group still a good four dekameters away, by the outskirts of camp. Gaius squinted at the far off group. "Those are the senior officers?" The soldier nodded. "But there are five of them."
"A female human is accompanying them. She is dressed like you." Gaius' heart skipped a beat as he realized what was happening. He sprinted towards the five.
"Oh no! Here he comes! Lets run for it!"
"Calm down Kirtten," Pericula reassured him. "I come with orders from the very top. Gaius won't dare harm any of you." Despite her show of bravery, Pericula was really worried. She didn't know what Gaius would do.
Soon, Gaius had rushed to their location. He tried to get out words, but he was too busy gasping for breath. Pericula spoke while he recovered from his mad dash.
"Greetings Gaius. I've come with new orders from Jistap himself."
Still breathing heavily, Gaius asked, only able to get one word out at a time. "Why...didn't...Jistap...contact me...through the...computer?"
Pericula responded, "I don't know," thinking it better not to mention the truth. Jistap had stopped communicating personally with Gaius, as part of his humiliation. Pericula continued, "I have been sent by Jistap to replace you. These four senior officers are to be directly under me. You have been placed under the authority of these four, and are to obey their orders to the letter."
Gaius gazed at Pericula, stunned. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected that Jistap would place him below Caletians. He was a Watcher, and no matter what he had done he deserved his elite status because of that fact. Finally he found it with in himself to ask, "are you serious."
Pericula nodded. "Jistap was quite clear. I believe his exact words were 'Gaius isn't allowed to breath without their permission.'"
Gaius pointed his laser gun at Pericula. She reached for hers, but Gaius warned, "don't even think about it. You make one false move and I'll kill you."
Pericula tried to smile. "You wouldn't kill a fellow Watcher would you Gaius?"
"Try me. You'll get back in whatever ship you came in, and you go straight back to the city, or I'll kill you right now, Watcher or not!"
Pericula looked straight into Gaius' eyes, defiantly. "Go ahead and kill me Gaius, but my orders come Jistap. Your little pea shooter won't be much good when he brings out the big guns, and then you'll be sorry you crossed him." Gaius screamed in rage like an animal, clawing himself with his fingernails. Then, his outburst over, he hung his head and handed his laser gun to Pericula. She grabbed it triumphantly. "Arrange an assembly in one hour Gaius, in which you will formally hand over command of this army to us." Gaius left, and inside her facade of confidence, Pericula breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"-your new leaders." Gaius introduction had been less then enthusiastic, but the soldiers cheered as if he had given an inspired performance. The four senior officers ascended the platform. The soldiers cheered even louder. Drusus tried to quiet them down, but they would not be quieted. They cheered until their voices could cheer no more. Their jubilation was not without merit, for Gaius' brief but horrible reign of terror was over.
At last, when the applause had finally come to an end, Drusus addressed the soldiers. "My friends," he said, "I am both happy and sad at this moment. I am happy because the rule of Calet has returned to the Caletians." At this point, a great cheer was heard, but it did not last near as long as its predecessor. "I am sad, because of the memory of Miktesh. He was a noble man, a great man, and we can only hope to be a worthy successor to one so admirable." Again, Drusus was forced to pause for the soldiers' cheering.
"We four will share power equally," Drusus continued. "We shall also share power with another, one called Pericula." Pericula ascended the platform. She was dressed in Caletian fashion, so that those who had not seen her before did not know she was any other than a Caletian. Those who had seen the showdown with Gaius, cheered her enthusiastically. The others were puzzled that a woman should be given such authority, but were too jubilant to question the appointment. Gaius was out of power, everything else was details.
The five exited the platform together, followed by Gaius. Kile turned to Gaius, eyes' gleaming of mischief. "Gaius," he said, "I've got a job for you. The latrines need cleaning." Gaius' jaw dropped. He turned to Pericula, hopping a fellow Watcher would save him from this humiliation, but Pericula remained looking out at the camp. Gaius went away angry.
Pericula sighed and shook her head as soon as he was out of sight. She didn't want to have to fight him for the rest of her command. As the only two Watchers here, they should corporate. She didn't want to humiliate him, but she knew better then to interfere with Kile's command in front of Gaius. She gave Kile a light tap on the shoulder. "Be easy on Gaius," she whispered. "He'll make a far better ally then he will enemy.
Jistap leaned over Bakes' shoulder. "How's everything going?"
"Things are going good. Pericula has assumed power, and Gaius has been totally humiliated. The transfer of power went as smooth as possible."
"Excellent. What's happening with the army Sulla used to command?"
"With a lack of strong leadership, the army completely dissolved. Many of the men are now looking for work and creating trouble in the nearby towns, but most of them are heading to join Pericula's army."
"Excellent, Excellent!" Jistap paused, struck by a new thought. "Is communication a problem?"
"No sir, they speak Caletian just like us."
"But the Icelers spoke Caletian too, and we had trouble communicating with them."
"The Icelers lived in a climate few others did. They had little contact with Calet, and never fully caught on to their language, but only just enough so that we can call the Icelers language a Caletian language."
"But over the one thousand years The Watchers have been in isolation, wouldn't our language be different from that of present day Calet."
"No it's not, and you can thank the Teacher for that. The Teacher can understand every language in Fabulae. When Haket first spoke to it, the Teacher immediately realized Haket spoke Caletian, and so communicated with Haket, his friends, and their descendents in Caletian ever since. The interesting thing is, the Teacher changed its language as Caletian changed outside the city. The teacher always communicated in present day Caletian, and so The Watchers have learned modern Caletian from the Teacher. Off course, we have developed some slang words of our own, but for the most part, our language and Calet's is the same."
Jistap thought about this answer for a while before he asked another question. "How hot are the Coler mountains now?"
Bakes shook his head. "The satellite keeps emitting heat. Although the rate of increase has slowed down dramatically, the temperature is still rising on the Colers. Right now the temperature is thirty two degrees and rising."
"Is there a danger?"
"We may have to turn the satellite off if this continues."
"What? If we turn the satellite off, how can the new world order come about? The satellite is essential to my plan."
"Lets just sit tight then, and the mountains don't get to hot. I already have scientists working on space travel, as you ordered. If we have to, we may have to delay the new world order until we develop space travel."
"How long would that be?"
"Oh, one month, one year, two years, a decade, a century, no one knows. We have barely begun to scratch the surface on this project. Once we find out what's involved, we can give you a more accurate time."
"How is Rodens doing?"
"Still harmless. He hasn't touched his ship or any of the equipment he left in it since he hid it. Using his ship's lasers, he was able to hide the ship beneath the ground, so I don't think there's any danger of someone finding it soon, but we might want to pick it up. Rodens himself has been living in Dishon, acting as a beggar. Perhaps you should pick him up too."
"I know I should. I've just been too busy lately. Your right though, I should pick him up. He could be a thorn in the flesh if he isn't dealt with. Send Livius in a ship to pick him up. I'll deliver justice to him when he is brought before me."
"I'll give the order sir."
"One more question, Bakes, what is-" Bakes gave Jistap a look with just enough exasperation on his face to let Jistap know this wasn't a good time. "I'm sorry Bakes, are you busy? I can ask you another time."
"That would help me sir. I am busy here."
Jistap nodded and walked out, saying, "no problem, sorry to disturb you."
As soon as Jistap was gone, Bakes rapidly punched a few buttons on his computer. A face appeared on the monitor. "Sorry for the delay," Bakes said. "I was talking with Jistap."
The face looked concerned. "Oh no! Is he on to us?"
Bakes shook his head. "He doesn't suspect a thing. We were just talking business as usual."
The ship landed smoothly on the ground. Pericula said good-bye to Livius, and got out, followed by the four senior officers. Pericula had thought it best to exit the ship about a kilometer away from the camp so that the soldiers didn't get scared when they saw it. The five walking back to camp.
Gaius cursed the weather, and closed his eyes, as he put his head down on his bed. He had known that he wouldn't be able to adjust the temperature in Calet like he had in the city, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. "Don't worry," he told himself. "I may be a little uncomfortable, but I still have the power I want." Power, the word echoed in his mind. It was the one thing he had dedicated his whole life to getting, and the more he had, the more he wanted. Last night he had not slept well, worried about Jistap's threat to take away his power. This morning, his mood was much better. He had decided that Jistap's threat had no teeth behind it. Jistap wouldn't dare make an enemy of him. Gaius smiled, Jistap knew how dangerous he was.
Gaius bolted upright. He could stand this weather any longer, something had to be done. He marched outside of his tent, and happened to see an officer passing by. "Hey, you," Gaius called out.
The officer came running. When he reached Gaius, he bowed low to the ground, terrified. "What do you wish, my lord?"
"I'm humid."
The anxiety the officer was feeling showed on his face. It was clear he didn't know how to respond. "Yes sir."
"Well don't just stand there, do something about it!" Gaius face flamed red as he waved his hands in anger.
The officer looked around nervously, and swallowed. "Sir, we don't exactly-"
A soldier ran up to Gaius, saving the officer from his dilemma. After bowing to Gaius he announced, "the four senior officers have returned sir."
Gaius' eyes lit up. "Is that so? They think they can just waltz on back after all the trouble they've caused me? I'll make them sorry they ever turned against me." Gaius grabbed his laser gun from his belt, and held it tightly. The soldier led the way, and Gaius followed.
After walking half-way through the camp, the soldier pointed to a group still a good four dekameters away, by the outskirts of camp. Gaius squinted at the far off group. "Those are the senior officers?" The soldier nodded. "But there are five of them."
"A female human is accompanying them. She is dressed like you." Gaius' heart skipped a beat as he realized what was happening. He sprinted towards the five.
"Oh no! Here he comes! Lets run for it!"
"Calm down Kirtten," Pericula reassured him. "I come with orders from the very top. Gaius won't dare harm any of you." Despite her show of bravery, Pericula was really worried. She didn't know what Gaius would do.
Soon, Gaius had rushed to their location. He tried to get out words, but he was too busy gasping for breath. Pericula spoke while he recovered from his mad dash.
"Greetings Gaius. I've come with new orders from Jistap himself."
Still breathing heavily, Gaius asked, only able to get one word out at a time. "Why...didn't...Jistap...contact me...through the...computer?"
Pericula responded, "I don't know," thinking it better not to mention the truth. Jistap had stopped communicating personally with Gaius, as part of his humiliation. Pericula continued, "I have been sent by Jistap to replace you. These four senior officers are to be directly under me. You have been placed under the authority of these four, and are to obey their orders to the letter."
Gaius gazed at Pericula, stunned. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected that Jistap would place him below Caletians. He was a Watcher, and no matter what he had done he deserved his elite status because of that fact. Finally he found it with in himself to ask, "are you serious."
Pericula nodded. "Jistap was quite clear. I believe his exact words were 'Gaius isn't allowed to breath without their permission.'"
Gaius pointed his laser gun at Pericula. She reached for hers, but Gaius warned, "don't even think about it. You make one false move and I'll kill you."
Pericula tried to smile. "You wouldn't kill a fellow Watcher would you Gaius?"
"Try me. You'll get back in whatever ship you came in, and you go straight back to the city, or I'll kill you right now, Watcher or not!"
Pericula looked straight into Gaius' eyes, defiantly. "Go ahead and kill me Gaius, but my orders come Jistap. Your little pea shooter won't be much good when he brings out the big guns, and then you'll be sorry you crossed him." Gaius screamed in rage like an animal, clawing himself with his fingernails. Then, his outburst over, he hung his head and handed his laser gun to Pericula. She grabbed it triumphantly. "Arrange an assembly in one hour Gaius, in which you will formally hand over command of this army to us." Gaius left, and inside her facade of confidence, Pericula breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"-your new leaders." Gaius introduction had been less then enthusiastic, but the soldiers cheered as if he had given an inspired performance. The four senior officers ascended the platform. The soldiers cheered even louder. Drusus tried to quiet them down, but they would not be quieted. They cheered until their voices could cheer no more. Their jubilation was not without merit, for Gaius' brief but horrible reign of terror was over.
At last, when the applause had finally come to an end, Drusus addressed the soldiers. "My friends," he said, "I am both happy and sad at this moment. I am happy because the rule of Calet has returned to the Caletians." At this point, a great cheer was heard, but it did not last near as long as its predecessor. "I am sad, because of the memory of Miktesh. He was a noble man, a great man, and we can only hope to be a worthy successor to one so admirable." Again, Drusus was forced to pause for the soldiers' cheering.
"We four will share power equally," Drusus continued. "We shall also share power with another, one called Pericula." Pericula ascended the platform. She was dressed in Caletian fashion, so that those who had not seen her before did not know she was any other than a Caletian. Those who had seen the showdown with Gaius, cheered her enthusiastically. The others were puzzled that a woman should be given such authority, but were too jubilant to question the appointment. Gaius was out of power, everything else was details.
The five exited the platform together, followed by Gaius. Kile turned to Gaius, eyes' gleaming of mischief. "Gaius," he said, "I've got a job for you. The latrines need cleaning." Gaius' jaw dropped. He turned to Pericula, hopping a fellow Watcher would save him from this humiliation, but Pericula remained looking out at the camp. Gaius went away angry.
Pericula sighed and shook her head as soon as he was out of sight. She didn't want to have to fight him for the rest of her command. As the only two Watchers here, they should corporate. She didn't want to humiliate him, but she knew better then to interfere with Kile's command in front of Gaius. She gave Kile a light tap on the shoulder. "Be easy on Gaius," she whispered. "He'll make a far better ally then he will enemy.
Jistap leaned over Bakes' shoulder. "How's everything going?"
"Things are going good. Pericula has assumed power, and Gaius has been totally humiliated. The transfer of power went as smooth as possible."
"Excellent. What's happening with the army Sulla used to command?"
"With a lack of strong leadership, the army completely dissolved. Many of the men are now looking for work and creating trouble in the nearby towns, but most of them are heading to join Pericula's army."
"Excellent, Excellent!" Jistap paused, struck by a new thought. "Is communication a problem?"
"No sir, they speak Caletian just like us."
"But the Icelers spoke Caletian too, and we had trouble communicating with them."
"The Icelers lived in a climate few others did. They had little contact with Calet, and never fully caught on to their language, but only just enough so that we can call the Icelers language a Caletian language."
"But over the one thousand years The Watchers have been in isolation, wouldn't our language be different from that of present day Calet."
"No it's not, and you can thank the Teacher for that. The Teacher can understand every language in Fabulae. When Haket first spoke to it, the Teacher immediately realized Haket spoke Caletian, and so communicated with Haket, his friends, and their descendents in Caletian ever since. The interesting thing is, the Teacher changed its language as Caletian changed outside the city. The teacher always communicated in present day Caletian, and so The Watchers have learned modern Caletian from the Teacher. Off course, we have developed some slang words of our own, but for the most part, our language and Calet's is the same."
Jistap thought about this answer for a while before he asked another question. "How hot are the Coler mountains now?"
Bakes shook his head. "The satellite keeps emitting heat. Although the rate of increase has slowed down dramatically, the temperature is still rising on the Colers. Right now the temperature is thirty two degrees and rising."
"Is there a danger?"
"We may have to turn the satellite off if this continues."
"What? If we turn the satellite off, how can the new world order come about? The satellite is essential to my plan."
"Lets just sit tight then, and the mountains don't get to hot. I already have scientists working on space travel, as you ordered. If we have to, we may have to delay the new world order until we develop space travel."
"How long would that be?"
"Oh, one month, one year, two years, a decade, a century, no one knows. We have barely begun to scratch the surface on this project. Once we find out what's involved, we can give you a more accurate time."
"How is Rodens doing?"
"Still harmless. He hasn't touched his ship or any of the equipment he left in it since he hid it. Using his ship's lasers, he was able to hide the ship beneath the ground, so I don't think there's any danger of someone finding it soon, but we might want to pick it up. Rodens himself has been living in Dishon, acting as a beggar. Perhaps you should pick him up too."
"I know I should. I've just been too busy lately. Your right though, I should pick him up. He could be a thorn in the flesh if he isn't dealt with. Send Livius in a ship to pick him up. I'll deliver justice to him when he is brought before me."
"I'll give the order sir."
"One more question, Bakes, what is-" Bakes gave Jistap a look with just enough exasperation on his face to let Jistap know this wasn't a good time. "I'm sorry Bakes, are you busy? I can ask you another time."
"That would help me sir. I am busy here."
Jistap nodded and walked out, saying, "no problem, sorry to disturb you."
As soon as Jistap was gone, Bakes rapidly punched a few buttons on his computer. A face appeared on the monitor. "Sorry for the delay," Bakes said. "I was talking with Jistap."
The face looked concerned. "Oh no! Is he on to us?"
Bakes shook his head. "He doesn't suspect a thing. We were just talking business as usual."
The New Era Chapter 7
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Livius escorted Rodens into the room. Jistap and Bakes rose from their seats to greet the two. "Where you able to retrieve his ship?" Jistap asked.
"Lauto is returning with it as we speak," Livius answered.
"Excellent. You may go, Livius." Livius bowed and left.
Jistap turned to Rodens. "Now, why don't you tell us what possessed you to do what you did?"
"What's going on? Why am I answering to you instead of an assembly?"
"No doubt you have many questions as to the events that transpired in your absence. I'll make a little deal with you. You tell me your story, I'll tell you mine."
"Sounds fair I guess." Rodens paused, "I'm not sure I want to talk about what I did though. It's not a pleasant memory."
"I should hope not!"
Rodens drew in a deep breath and began. "I want you to know I'm not proud of what I did. I guess it all started at that meeting we had, the one where Bakes first introduced the danger the Icelers where in. I liked the Icelers, but I was inflamed with love for the Watchers. My patriotism wouldn't allow the Watchers to compromise their power to help the Icelers. By losing our secrecy when we shipped the Icelers to the North Pole, we were greatly compromising our power.
"From the moment the vote was totalled, I knew inside it was fake. Then, when I found out that Hans was helping to lie to the public, I was filled with rage. My best friend had betrayed me in order to further his own political agenda. Our president himself was corruption incarnate. Fortunately, I had discovered the problem in time to stop it, or so I thought. I never thought Hans would help unjustly imprison me, but he did. I sat their in my cell thinking, thinking that I would be left here forever, and that you, Jistap, would get away with this. The very thought pushed me into a rage that ultimately sent me on the killing rampage. I would have killed you, but I couldn't kill another Watcher, so I killed Icelers instead. Finally, when my anger had subsided, the gravity of what I had done began to weigh heavy on me. I came into a state of total apathy, went to Dishon, replicated a lot of valorts, and stayed drunk for as long as I could."
Jistap looked strangely at Rodens, as if Rodens were a five headed mutant. After a while he said, "Rodens, their is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are a mentally unstable person, perhaps the most so in all of Watcher history. In light of your temporary insanity, I am going to allow you to live."
"What do you mean? There is no death penalty among the Watchers."
"There is now. I have taken over now. The city is in a complete dictatorship."
"Even you wouldn't kill a fellow Watcher."
"My army has already killed seven hundred. You will join the thousand that have been exiled."
"You son of a bitch!" Rodens lunged for Jistap, but stopped suddenly. "You're no better then I am. You call me insane, but we are to of a kind."
"Guards," shouted Jistap. Two guards rushed into the room. "Escort Rodens into exile."
The guards practically dragged Rodens out of the room, but as he was leaving, Rodens shouted, "we are two of a kind, Jistap."
As soon as Rodens was gone, Bakes turned to Jistap. "I must admit sir, I'm surprised you let him live. Rodens has killed over seventy Icelers for no reason. I was sure you would executed him."
Jistap smiled. "Bakes, I have a much bigger plan in mind. I know Rodens deserved to die, but he will serve me much better alive. Those exiles have been plotting against me ever since they were banished from the city. I know this sounds silly, but sometimes listening in on their conversations, I get scared hearing their plots, and what they will do when they get back in the city. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'd sleep a lot easier if I could take care of them. Hopefully, Rodens will do that for me. The exiles are all united in their hatred of me. We'll see how united they stay once they have a mass murderer in their mists, who hates me as much as any of them."
The first and most obvious thing Rodens noticed when he first set foot on the Coler mountains, was the heat. The sun wasn't even out, hidden behind some clouds, but the heat was unbearable to some one who had lived in comfort all his life.
Taking a look around, Rodens was unimpressed by the scenery that would have been breath taking to anyone else. He did see something that caught his interest though, a village of roughly made shacks, about a half a kilometer away. Realizing that this must be where the other exiles where, Rodens walked over.
When Rodens reached the village, on one of the few flat spots on the Colers, he was surprised to see few people there. The village was practically deserted. After wandering around for a few minutes, he did meet up with one man. "Excuse me," Rodens said, "I'm a new exile. Could you tell me where everyone is?"
Rodens was glad that he did not know the man, who responded, "Well, most of the camp is down at the base of the mountain, gathering what food they can. Almost everyone else is swimming in Coler's river, the only cool spot there is on this mountain."
Rodens was not eager to meet the rest of the exiles, but his short time in Dishon had convinced him he was ill equipped to handle life outside of the city. He would have to stay with the rest of the exiles, which meant now was as good as time as any to get this confrontation over. Besides, he thought, a cool swim sounds pretty good right now.
Rodens asked the man for directions, and followed those directions to the stream. When he got to the stream, Rodens acted as if he had been exiled all year, by casually jumping into the river, and swimming with the other Watchers the rest of the day.
It was dark by the time Hans returned to the village. His shoulders ached from carrying the food all the way from the base of the mountain to the camp. He rested, leaning against a rock. Even at night, the mountains were still hot, and Hans began sweating just sitting. Before long, Hans began to realize how thirsty he was, and got up to go get some water. Water had been brought back from the stream by several of the exiles on their way back from the stream. Hans took a big long drink from the bucket, before turning to head back to the rock. The water had taken some getting used to by all the exiles, since it was not perfectly clean like that in the city, but the mountains were so hot that it still was refreshing.
On his way back to the rock, Hans thought he saw Rodens. In the dark it was hard to tell, but the figure he saw did look like Rodens. Hans dismissed the idea at first. "Rodens isn't one of the exiles," he told himself. Thinking further, however, Hans realized that Jistap would want Rodens brought to justice immediately, and this was probably the place Rodens would end up once Jistap was through with him.
Hans walked up to the figure, and tapped his shoulder. The figure turned around, face to face with Hans. Hans immediately recognized that it was Rodens, and Rodens recognized Hans. About a minute passed as both just stared at each other, and each was too lost in his own thoughts to speak. Thoughts of both happier times and horrible memories of recent events. Then Hans snapped. The pictures of the dead and mutilated Icelers filled his mind. He was filled once again with anger at Rodens for his atrocities. Hans punched Rodens across the face, and then hit Rodens repeatedly. A crowd gathered around the pair.
"Break it up you two," Mucius yelled. Aided by several others, Mucius was able to separate Hans and Rodens. Several men held Hans back, as he struggled against them. Rodens gave no struggle, but a couple men held onto him anyway. Mucius stood between the two.
"Let me at that son of a bitch!" screamed Hans, squirming to get free.
"Hans, you know better then that," Mucius replied. "The common enemy is Jistap. It is he we must struggle against, and not each other. We must work together in peace until we have defeated him. If you can't do that, we'll have to ask you to leave our village." Mucius looked like he was going to say more, but he stopped suddenly. He looked back and forth at Hans and Rodens, before saying, "what's going on? Aren't you two best friends?"
Hans had expected the Watchers to know everything by know, but Mucius reaction proved Jistap had kept Rodens exploits secret even now. Hans had told the other exiles nothing about the short time during which he helped Jistap, fearing it would disrupt the sense of unity. "I'm sorry Mucius. You're right, my actions were totally out of line. It won't happen again. I'd like to speak with Rodens for a moment, alone."
Mucius nodded to the other men, who released Hans and Rodens. The two walked to the edge of the village, neither speaking a word the whole way. When they reached the outside of the village, Rodens sat down on a rock and buried his head in his hands, while Hans paced back and forth, occasionally punching the air. After a couple minutes of this, Rodens looked up, and in a soft voice said, "Hans-"
Hans whirled around. "So, Jistap finally caught you eh? We'll old buddy I guess you won this one. You've managed to kill almost as many Icelers as we saved. I yield to your power."
"Hans please-"
"I can understand you were mad at me, mad at Jistap. Killing a hundred Icelers is a perfectly healthy form of releasing stress."
"Hans, listen to me. I'm sorry for what I did now. You don't know the guilt I'm feeling."
Hans' face softened. He looked sympathetically at Rodens. "I'm sorry Rodens," he said in a sweet tone. "I know you realize now that what you did was wrong, and that you're sorry. I'm sure your never do it again, so I'm just going to forget that you killed a hundred Innocents."
"Hans I'm not asking you to forget it."
"Then what are you asking me to do!" Hans grabbed Rodens by the shoulders, and screamed into his face. "You didn't stop to see what you did, did you? You just flew on right past your victims! I landed! I saw the dead, the wounded, the mutilated, the grieving! I saw it and I'm never going to forget it, or forgive you! Never!" Hans broke away, and began pacing again. After a few times back and forth, he turned to Rodens. "You leave this village by tonight, and I won't tell anyone what you did. I'll leave your name clean, which is more then you deserve."
"Hans, I don't know how to survive by myself in the real world."
"Learn."
"Hans please, you can tell them the truth if you want, but I'm not leaving the village. I can't make it on my own."
Hans looked into Rodens' eyes, and Rodens looked back into Hans'. Rodens saw in Hans' eyes a look of days past, when the two were best friends. "Rodens, please, I can't forget what you did. I can't forget what I saw. I can't be around you anymore. This village isn't big enough for both of us. If you don't leave, there's going to be an ugly confrontation."
Rodens nodded, a little bit of a smile appeared on his face. "Alright Hans, I'll leave tonight." Rodens extended his hand for Hans to shake. Hans thought for a moment, brought forth his own hand, but before it reached Rodens' he slowly brought it back. Hans looked at Rodens, and thought of all the times the two had shared together. "Good-bye, old friend."
"Good-bye Hans," Rodens answered, as he began his journey down the mountains.
Livius escorted Rodens into the room. Jistap and Bakes rose from their seats to greet the two. "Where you able to retrieve his ship?" Jistap asked.
"Lauto is returning with it as we speak," Livius answered.
"Excellent. You may go, Livius." Livius bowed and left.
Jistap turned to Rodens. "Now, why don't you tell us what possessed you to do what you did?"
"What's going on? Why am I answering to you instead of an assembly?"
"No doubt you have many questions as to the events that transpired in your absence. I'll make a little deal with you. You tell me your story, I'll tell you mine."
"Sounds fair I guess." Rodens paused, "I'm not sure I want to talk about what I did though. It's not a pleasant memory."
"I should hope not!"
Rodens drew in a deep breath and began. "I want you to know I'm not proud of what I did. I guess it all started at that meeting we had, the one where Bakes first introduced the danger the Icelers where in. I liked the Icelers, but I was inflamed with love for the Watchers. My patriotism wouldn't allow the Watchers to compromise their power to help the Icelers. By losing our secrecy when we shipped the Icelers to the North Pole, we were greatly compromising our power.
"From the moment the vote was totalled, I knew inside it was fake. Then, when I found out that Hans was helping to lie to the public, I was filled with rage. My best friend had betrayed me in order to further his own political agenda. Our president himself was corruption incarnate. Fortunately, I had discovered the problem in time to stop it, or so I thought. I never thought Hans would help unjustly imprison me, but he did. I sat their in my cell thinking, thinking that I would be left here forever, and that you, Jistap, would get away with this. The very thought pushed me into a rage that ultimately sent me on the killing rampage. I would have killed you, but I couldn't kill another Watcher, so I killed Icelers instead. Finally, when my anger had subsided, the gravity of what I had done began to weigh heavy on me. I came into a state of total apathy, went to Dishon, replicated a lot of valorts, and stayed drunk for as long as I could."
Jistap looked strangely at Rodens, as if Rodens were a five headed mutant. After a while he said, "Rodens, their is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are a mentally unstable person, perhaps the most so in all of Watcher history. In light of your temporary insanity, I am going to allow you to live."
"What do you mean? There is no death penalty among the Watchers."
"There is now. I have taken over now. The city is in a complete dictatorship."
"Even you wouldn't kill a fellow Watcher."
"My army has already killed seven hundred. You will join the thousand that have been exiled."
"You son of a bitch!" Rodens lunged for Jistap, but stopped suddenly. "You're no better then I am. You call me insane, but we are to of a kind."
"Guards," shouted Jistap. Two guards rushed into the room. "Escort Rodens into exile."
The guards practically dragged Rodens out of the room, but as he was leaving, Rodens shouted, "we are two of a kind, Jistap."
As soon as Rodens was gone, Bakes turned to Jistap. "I must admit sir, I'm surprised you let him live. Rodens has killed over seventy Icelers for no reason. I was sure you would executed him."
Jistap smiled. "Bakes, I have a much bigger plan in mind. I know Rodens deserved to die, but he will serve me much better alive. Those exiles have been plotting against me ever since they were banished from the city. I know this sounds silly, but sometimes listening in on their conversations, I get scared hearing their plots, and what they will do when they get back in the city. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'd sleep a lot easier if I could take care of them. Hopefully, Rodens will do that for me. The exiles are all united in their hatred of me. We'll see how united they stay once they have a mass murderer in their mists, who hates me as much as any of them."
The first and most obvious thing Rodens noticed when he first set foot on the Coler mountains, was the heat. The sun wasn't even out, hidden behind some clouds, but the heat was unbearable to some one who had lived in comfort all his life.
Taking a look around, Rodens was unimpressed by the scenery that would have been breath taking to anyone else. He did see something that caught his interest though, a village of roughly made shacks, about a half a kilometer away. Realizing that this must be where the other exiles where, Rodens walked over.
When Rodens reached the village, on one of the few flat spots on the Colers, he was surprised to see few people there. The village was practically deserted. After wandering around for a few minutes, he did meet up with one man. "Excuse me," Rodens said, "I'm a new exile. Could you tell me where everyone is?"
Rodens was glad that he did not know the man, who responded, "Well, most of the camp is down at the base of the mountain, gathering what food they can. Almost everyone else is swimming in Coler's river, the only cool spot there is on this mountain."
Rodens was not eager to meet the rest of the exiles, but his short time in Dishon had convinced him he was ill equipped to handle life outside of the city. He would have to stay with the rest of the exiles, which meant now was as good as time as any to get this confrontation over. Besides, he thought, a cool swim sounds pretty good right now.
Rodens asked the man for directions, and followed those directions to the stream. When he got to the stream, Rodens acted as if he had been exiled all year, by casually jumping into the river, and swimming with the other Watchers the rest of the day.
It was dark by the time Hans returned to the village. His shoulders ached from carrying the food all the way from the base of the mountain to the camp. He rested, leaning against a rock. Even at night, the mountains were still hot, and Hans began sweating just sitting. Before long, Hans began to realize how thirsty he was, and got up to go get some water. Water had been brought back from the stream by several of the exiles on their way back from the stream. Hans took a big long drink from the bucket, before turning to head back to the rock. The water had taken some getting used to by all the exiles, since it was not perfectly clean like that in the city, but the mountains were so hot that it still was refreshing.
On his way back to the rock, Hans thought he saw Rodens. In the dark it was hard to tell, but the figure he saw did look like Rodens. Hans dismissed the idea at first. "Rodens isn't one of the exiles," he told himself. Thinking further, however, Hans realized that Jistap would want Rodens brought to justice immediately, and this was probably the place Rodens would end up once Jistap was through with him.
Hans walked up to the figure, and tapped his shoulder. The figure turned around, face to face with Hans. Hans immediately recognized that it was Rodens, and Rodens recognized Hans. About a minute passed as both just stared at each other, and each was too lost in his own thoughts to speak. Thoughts of both happier times and horrible memories of recent events. Then Hans snapped. The pictures of the dead and mutilated Icelers filled his mind. He was filled once again with anger at Rodens for his atrocities. Hans punched Rodens across the face, and then hit Rodens repeatedly. A crowd gathered around the pair.
"Break it up you two," Mucius yelled. Aided by several others, Mucius was able to separate Hans and Rodens. Several men held Hans back, as he struggled against them. Rodens gave no struggle, but a couple men held onto him anyway. Mucius stood between the two.
"Let me at that son of a bitch!" screamed Hans, squirming to get free.
"Hans, you know better then that," Mucius replied. "The common enemy is Jistap. It is he we must struggle against, and not each other. We must work together in peace until we have defeated him. If you can't do that, we'll have to ask you to leave our village." Mucius looked like he was going to say more, but he stopped suddenly. He looked back and forth at Hans and Rodens, before saying, "what's going on? Aren't you two best friends?"
Hans had expected the Watchers to know everything by know, but Mucius reaction proved Jistap had kept Rodens exploits secret even now. Hans had told the other exiles nothing about the short time during which he helped Jistap, fearing it would disrupt the sense of unity. "I'm sorry Mucius. You're right, my actions were totally out of line. It won't happen again. I'd like to speak with Rodens for a moment, alone."
Mucius nodded to the other men, who released Hans and Rodens. The two walked to the edge of the village, neither speaking a word the whole way. When they reached the outside of the village, Rodens sat down on a rock and buried his head in his hands, while Hans paced back and forth, occasionally punching the air. After a couple minutes of this, Rodens looked up, and in a soft voice said, "Hans-"
Hans whirled around. "So, Jistap finally caught you eh? We'll old buddy I guess you won this one. You've managed to kill almost as many Icelers as we saved. I yield to your power."
"Hans please-"
"I can understand you were mad at me, mad at Jistap. Killing a hundred Icelers is a perfectly healthy form of releasing stress."
"Hans, listen to me. I'm sorry for what I did now. You don't know the guilt I'm feeling."
Hans' face softened. He looked sympathetically at Rodens. "I'm sorry Rodens," he said in a sweet tone. "I know you realize now that what you did was wrong, and that you're sorry. I'm sure your never do it again, so I'm just going to forget that you killed a hundred Innocents."
"Hans I'm not asking you to forget it."
"Then what are you asking me to do!" Hans grabbed Rodens by the shoulders, and screamed into his face. "You didn't stop to see what you did, did you? You just flew on right past your victims! I landed! I saw the dead, the wounded, the mutilated, the grieving! I saw it and I'm never going to forget it, or forgive you! Never!" Hans broke away, and began pacing again. After a few times back and forth, he turned to Rodens. "You leave this village by tonight, and I won't tell anyone what you did. I'll leave your name clean, which is more then you deserve."
"Hans, I don't know how to survive by myself in the real world."
"Learn."
"Hans please, you can tell them the truth if you want, but I'm not leaving the village. I can't make it on my own."
Hans looked into Rodens' eyes, and Rodens looked back into Hans'. Rodens saw in Hans' eyes a look of days past, when the two were best friends. "Rodens, please, I can't forget what you did. I can't forget what I saw. I can't be around you anymore. This village isn't big enough for both of us. If you don't leave, there's going to be an ugly confrontation."
Rodens nodded, a little bit of a smile appeared on his face. "Alright Hans, I'll leave tonight." Rodens extended his hand for Hans to shake. Hans thought for a moment, brought forth his own hand, but before it reached Rodens' he slowly brought it back. Hans looked at Rodens, and thought of all the times the two had shared together. "Good-bye, old friend."
"Good-bye Hans," Rodens answered, as he began his journey down the mountains.
The New Era Chapter 8
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Jistap looked at the table, where the thirteen on his team sat. He noticed several empty chairs, and he quickly accounted for many of them. Hans was in exile, Sulla was dead, Gaius and Pericula were in Calet, but that still left one more empty seat. Bakes, he was the one who wasn't here.
At just that moment, Bakes came in the door. "You're late, Bakes," Jistap said.
"Executor, now!" The words had just barely left Bakes mouth when energy flew out of the walls. Jistap screamed as it enveloped his body, but not for long. Before everyone's eyes, Jistap was completely vaporized.
Bakes turned to the others, who sat stunned. "Jistap wanted me to give him complete control of the computers. I did this, but unknown to him I gave myself even more power then he had. The computers took their orders from me, only when I remained silent did they listen to Jistap. Now, I have killed Jistap to gain total control for myself." Bakes noticed that he was not recieving as much support as he had been expecting. Knowing that despite their show of loyalty, no one in this room had ever really been a supporter of Jistap, Bakes had thought they would be overjoyed at his death. "I will undo the damage Jistap did. All the exiles, no matter what the reason for being exiled, will be forgiven their crime and welcomed back to the city immediatly. The new world order will be abandoned. Gaius and Pericula will be called back from Calet."
Aked, one of the most driven members of the team asked, "does this mean we will be returning to democracy?"
Bakes smiled. "Soon, soon but for the present I think it would be best if we here assume control, at least until things get back to normal. Hans, Gaius and Pericula, will join us in power." A cheer arose, followed by applause. The other eight in the room congragulated Bakes on his cleverness and braveness, and hailed him as the savior of the Watchers.
The air was nice and cool, almost a little bit too cold. Hans looked around him. The city seemed to sparkle in it's brillance. Everything was clean, and shiny, and comfortable. Paradise was recovered.
"Ah, it feels great to be back in the city again." Mucius took a deep breath, and exhaled it slowly. "The air here, it's so much better then Coler's. The temperature is better, the ground is better, everything is better. It's good to be home."
"I'm still not quite sure what's happening," Hans admitted. "Why were we allowed back in the city? Has Jistap forgiven us for our disloyalty?"
Before Mucius could answer, two men in guards uniform approuched the two. "You're Hans?" one of them asked. Hans nodded. "Come with us please."
Hans was lead into the meeting room of what used to be Jistap's team. The room was empty except for Bakes, sitting in one of the chairs. When Hans entered the room, Bakes immediatly rose to greet him. "Sit down Hans."
"Thank you Bakes, but I think I'd prefer to stand until I know what's going on. Why did Jistap let me back in the city?"
"Jistap is dead Hans, I killed him myself. I am in control now."
Hans smiled weakly. "Forgive me if I sound rude, but I don't think that's much of an improvement. Our problems won't be over until control is returned to the people."
"I couldn't agree with you more Hans. I plan to return to democracy as soon as we can safely do so. Unfortunately, Jistap did a lot of damage, and I think it's wise to repair what he did before we return control back to the people. Sort of ease them into it so to speak."
Hans' skepticism was evident in his tone. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
Bakes shrugged. "Well, you know, just clean things up a little bit. Make sure all the exiles get adjusted back to the city, bring back Gaius and Pericula from Calet." Bakes saw the puzzled look on Hans' face. "It's a long story I'll explain later. Anyway, there's a lot of little stuff that needs to be taken care off. The point is Hans, while this transition period is going on, the city will be ruled by the team, those of us who banded together to save the Icelers. As a member of the team, your entitled to your share of power. Do you want it?"
Hans thought for a moment. "On one condition, this very night you will make a speech to the city, telling them what you just told me. You will give a detailed outline of the steps you think are needed to return to democracy, and give the people a deadline of how long it will take. You will also tell them that if the steps aren't completed by the deadline, for whatever reason, they will be disregarded and democracy will be returned immediatly."
Bakes extended his hand for Hans to shake. "Fair enough, I accept. Welcome back Hans." Hans shook Bakes' hand firmly.
"Get out, I'm in no mood to talk."
The man simply smiled, and proceeded into Gaius' tent. "I'm not afraid of you Gaius, no one is afraid of you anymore. You've been declawed. Your nothing without your laser gun."
Gaius was not suprised that the man knew the name for the weapons he had been using. Pericula had been talking about the laser guns in front of the troops. "I'm still your superiour officer. I don't know who you are or what you want but if you don't get out of my tent right now I'll have you flogged."
The man held up his hands, his smile broadening. "Don't do that just yet. Here me out, I have a proposal to make that could be very beneficial to us both."
"You have nothing I want."
"On the contrary, I have the means to put you back in power."
"What are you talking about?"
"I have many men with me. We are about twenty in all. You want that bitch Pericula assassinated? We can do that for you. When she least expects it, before she has time to get her laser gun, we will strike. When she's dead, we'll give the laser guns back to you, and you can rule supreme."
Gaius interest was perked. "What's the catch?"
"As soon as your back in control, give us one laser gun. We'll leave the camp and stay out of your way forever. We'd use it to rob villagers, and become rich as kings."
Gaius was tempted. He would only need one laser gun once he was back in power, and he longed to see Pericula dead. Then, he remembered Jistap back in the city. "You just don't get it," he said. "I'm powerless against Pericula, she has strong friends."
The man nodded. "If you change your mind, my offer still stands. Look for me by my tent, it's right next to the well. My name is Blanka, ask for me." Gaius watched lanka leave his tent, and remained looking at the door for quite some time. Finally he turned away, and struck his bed, hard. He longed to kill Pericula, and Jistap, and Kile, and all the rest of his enemies. "Patience," he told himself. "Be patient and wait for your oppurtunity."
Azom dismounted from the chariot, and paid the horses. His appearance was shielded by a cloak, that covered his whole body. Peering out from underneath it, Azom looked at the sight surrounding him. He was in Dishon's capital, the perfect place to start his massacre. Azom felt around him to make sure he had all his weapons, sword, knife, and spear. They were all there.
Azet, purched on Azom's shoulder, asked, "so when do we start the fight?"
"Tommorrow. We will begin tommorrow."
"I hate to call this meeting so suddenly, but our life's work, not to mention our very lives our in danger." After an introduction like that, one would expect that the audience was leaning in, listening closely to hear what would be said next. This audience was no exception. "They are in control of the Watchers." The audience gasped, horrified. "As far as we can tell, they've known about the Watchers since they were created. Yet, they have left them alone all these years. Watcher history has been dull and uneventful. Now suddenly, they have been influencing the Watchers heavily, but to no appearant cause. Jistap's new world order was halted by Bakes, Gaius' reign of terror was stopped by Pericula, Rodens' killing spree was ended by Hans. Why haven't they done anything?" A dull murmur was heard, as several tried to guess. "I'll tell you why. There's only one possible explanation. It's too much of a coincidence that our return should coincide with chaos among the Watchers after all these years of peace. They know where coming, and they're are toying with the Watchers just to let us know they know we're coming. The element of surprise has been lost." Frightened chatter followed this last announcement.
The speaker held up his hands for silence. "Unfortunately, the situation is worse then that. If they know we are coming, it is logical to assume they know a lot more about us. They could know about all our plans, all our weapons. They could have duplicated and improved our inventions. They could be on this very ship." More frightened chatter was heard, and the speaker was unsuccessful in obtaining quietness for quite some time.
As soon as he could continue, the speaker proceded. "Needless to say, this calls for immediate action and to that end I have with me a number of key targets with me. The first item is Fera. No doubt you understand that breaking their influence is crucial. Fera is the only country they have absolute control over. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to spend, so we're going to have to make it brief." The speaker pointed to one across the table from him. "I trust you can think of something simple, yet effective to at least give them some trouble in Fera." The one being pointed to nodded.
"Good," the speaker continued. "The next target is the Watchers. They are a valuable playing peace, and since it is clear are oppenents are in possession of them, we must nullify their potential. Therefore, I want the doors sealed. No one is to get in or out of the city."
"Sir," someone spoke up, "they have two men still in Calet."
"That is the least of their worries. The doors will be sealed. In the situation we're in we can't afford to take any risks whatsoever. The two in Calet will have to learn to fend for themselves."
"Sir," someone said, "should we turn back now before it's too late?"
"No, we must never do that. They must be defeated at all costs. We are dealing with sadists, and murderors. We know how treacherous and clever they can be, but this time the victory will be ours. The next key target is ..."
Civilization is perhaps the greatest accomplishment ever achieved by intelligent beings. Protection is always needed from the evil, those that prey on the weak. When civilization is destroyed, life is thrown into chaos. Order becomes an ideal only. The only purpose is to survive. It was thousands of years ago that Fabulae first emerged from the chaos of life into civilization. A new era was then born. Now, that era is coming to a close. Chaos rears its ugly head, and life must cope with it. Now is truly the beginning of another era. A newer era, filled with new ideas, new problems and new solutions. Fabulae will never be the same again.
Jistap looked at the table, where the thirteen on his team sat. He noticed several empty chairs, and he quickly accounted for many of them. Hans was in exile, Sulla was dead, Gaius and Pericula were in Calet, but that still left one more empty seat. Bakes, he was the one who wasn't here.
At just that moment, Bakes came in the door. "You're late, Bakes," Jistap said.
"Executor, now!" The words had just barely left Bakes mouth when energy flew out of the walls. Jistap screamed as it enveloped his body, but not for long. Before everyone's eyes, Jistap was completely vaporized.
Bakes turned to the others, who sat stunned. "Jistap wanted me to give him complete control of the computers. I did this, but unknown to him I gave myself even more power then he had. The computers took their orders from me, only when I remained silent did they listen to Jistap. Now, I have killed Jistap to gain total control for myself." Bakes noticed that he was not recieving as much support as he had been expecting. Knowing that despite their show of loyalty, no one in this room had ever really been a supporter of Jistap, Bakes had thought they would be overjoyed at his death. "I will undo the damage Jistap did. All the exiles, no matter what the reason for being exiled, will be forgiven their crime and welcomed back to the city immediatly. The new world order will be abandoned. Gaius and Pericula will be called back from Calet."
Aked, one of the most driven members of the team asked, "does this mean we will be returning to democracy?"
Bakes smiled. "Soon, soon but for the present I think it would be best if we here assume control, at least until things get back to normal. Hans, Gaius and Pericula, will join us in power." A cheer arose, followed by applause. The other eight in the room congragulated Bakes on his cleverness and braveness, and hailed him as the savior of the Watchers.
The air was nice and cool, almost a little bit too cold. Hans looked around him. The city seemed to sparkle in it's brillance. Everything was clean, and shiny, and comfortable. Paradise was recovered.
"Ah, it feels great to be back in the city again." Mucius took a deep breath, and exhaled it slowly. "The air here, it's so much better then Coler's. The temperature is better, the ground is better, everything is better. It's good to be home."
"I'm still not quite sure what's happening," Hans admitted. "Why were we allowed back in the city? Has Jistap forgiven us for our disloyalty?"
Before Mucius could answer, two men in guards uniform approuched the two. "You're Hans?" one of them asked. Hans nodded. "Come with us please."
Hans was lead into the meeting room of what used to be Jistap's team. The room was empty except for Bakes, sitting in one of the chairs. When Hans entered the room, Bakes immediatly rose to greet him. "Sit down Hans."
"Thank you Bakes, but I think I'd prefer to stand until I know what's going on. Why did Jistap let me back in the city?"
"Jistap is dead Hans, I killed him myself. I am in control now."
Hans smiled weakly. "Forgive me if I sound rude, but I don't think that's much of an improvement. Our problems won't be over until control is returned to the people."
"I couldn't agree with you more Hans. I plan to return to democracy as soon as we can safely do so. Unfortunately, Jistap did a lot of damage, and I think it's wise to repair what he did before we return control back to the people. Sort of ease them into it so to speak."
Hans' skepticism was evident in his tone. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
Bakes shrugged. "Well, you know, just clean things up a little bit. Make sure all the exiles get adjusted back to the city, bring back Gaius and Pericula from Calet." Bakes saw the puzzled look on Hans' face. "It's a long story I'll explain later. Anyway, there's a lot of little stuff that needs to be taken care off. The point is Hans, while this transition period is going on, the city will be ruled by the team, those of us who banded together to save the Icelers. As a member of the team, your entitled to your share of power. Do you want it?"
Hans thought for a moment. "On one condition, this very night you will make a speech to the city, telling them what you just told me. You will give a detailed outline of the steps you think are needed to return to democracy, and give the people a deadline of how long it will take. You will also tell them that if the steps aren't completed by the deadline, for whatever reason, they will be disregarded and democracy will be returned immediatly."
Bakes extended his hand for Hans to shake. "Fair enough, I accept. Welcome back Hans." Hans shook Bakes' hand firmly.
"Get out, I'm in no mood to talk."
The man simply smiled, and proceeded into Gaius' tent. "I'm not afraid of you Gaius, no one is afraid of you anymore. You've been declawed. Your nothing without your laser gun."
Gaius was not suprised that the man knew the name for the weapons he had been using. Pericula had been talking about the laser guns in front of the troops. "I'm still your superiour officer. I don't know who you are or what you want but if you don't get out of my tent right now I'll have you flogged."
The man held up his hands, his smile broadening. "Don't do that just yet. Here me out, I have a proposal to make that could be very beneficial to us both."
"You have nothing I want."
"On the contrary, I have the means to put you back in power."
"What are you talking about?"
"I have many men with me. We are about twenty in all. You want that bitch Pericula assassinated? We can do that for you. When she least expects it, before she has time to get her laser gun, we will strike. When she's dead, we'll give the laser guns back to you, and you can rule supreme."
Gaius interest was perked. "What's the catch?"
"As soon as your back in control, give us one laser gun. We'll leave the camp and stay out of your way forever. We'd use it to rob villagers, and become rich as kings."
Gaius was tempted. He would only need one laser gun once he was back in power, and he longed to see Pericula dead. Then, he remembered Jistap back in the city. "You just don't get it," he said. "I'm powerless against Pericula, she has strong friends."
The man nodded. "If you change your mind, my offer still stands. Look for me by my tent, it's right next to the well. My name is Blanka, ask for me." Gaius watched lanka leave his tent, and remained looking at the door for quite some time. Finally he turned away, and struck his bed, hard. He longed to kill Pericula, and Jistap, and Kile, and all the rest of his enemies. "Patience," he told himself. "Be patient and wait for your oppurtunity."
Azom dismounted from the chariot, and paid the horses. His appearance was shielded by a cloak, that covered his whole body. Peering out from underneath it, Azom looked at the sight surrounding him. He was in Dishon's capital, the perfect place to start his massacre. Azom felt around him to make sure he had all his weapons, sword, knife, and spear. They were all there.
Azet, purched on Azom's shoulder, asked, "so when do we start the fight?"
"Tommorrow. We will begin tommorrow."
"I hate to call this meeting so suddenly, but our life's work, not to mention our very lives our in danger." After an introduction like that, one would expect that the audience was leaning in, listening closely to hear what would be said next. This audience was no exception. "They are in control of the Watchers." The audience gasped, horrified. "As far as we can tell, they've known about the Watchers since they were created. Yet, they have left them alone all these years. Watcher history has been dull and uneventful. Now suddenly, they have been influencing the Watchers heavily, but to no appearant cause. Jistap's new world order was halted by Bakes, Gaius' reign of terror was stopped by Pericula, Rodens' killing spree was ended by Hans. Why haven't they done anything?" A dull murmur was heard, as several tried to guess. "I'll tell you why. There's only one possible explanation. It's too much of a coincidence that our return should coincide with chaos among the Watchers after all these years of peace. They know where coming, and they're are toying with the Watchers just to let us know they know we're coming. The element of surprise has been lost." Frightened chatter followed this last announcement.
The speaker held up his hands for silence. "Unfortunately, the situation is worse then that. If they know we are coming, it is logical to assume they know a lot more about us. They could know about all our plans, all our weapons. They could have duplicated and improved our inventions. They could be on this very ship." More frightened chatter was heard, and the speaker was unsuccessful in obtaining quietness for quite some time.
As soon as he could continue, the speaker proceded. "Needless to say, this calls for immediate action and to that end I have with me a number of key targets with me. The first item is Fera. No doubt you understand that breaking their influence is crucial. Fera is the only country they have absolute control over. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to spend, so we're going to have to make it brief." The speaker pointed to one across the table from him. "I trust you can think of something simple, yet effective to at least give them some trouble in Fera." The one being pointed to nodded.
"Good," the speaker continued. "The next target is the Watchers. They are a valuable playing peace, and since it is clear are oppenents are in possession of them, we must nullify their potential. Therefore, I want the doors sealed. No one is to get in or out of the city."
"Sir," someone spoke up, "they have two men still in Calet."
"That is the least of their worries. The doors will be sealed. In the situation we're in we can't afford to take any risks whatsoever. The two in Calet will have to learn to fend for themselves."
"Sir," someone said, "should we turn back now before it's too late?"
"No, we must never do that. They must be defeated at all costs. We are dealing with sadists, and murderors. We know how treacherous and clever they can be, but this time the victory will be ours. The next key target is ..."
Civilization is perhaps the greatest accomplishment ever achieved by intelligent beings. Protection is always needed from the evil, those that prey on the weak. When civilization is destroyed, life is thrown into chaos. Order becomes an ideal only. The only purpose is to survive. It was thousands of years ago that Fabulae first emerged from the chaos of life into civilization. A new era was then born. Now, that era is coming to a close. Chaos rears its ugly head, and life must cope with it. Now is truly the beginning of another era. A newer era, filled with new ideas, new problems and new solutions. Fabulae will never be the same again.
The New Era Chapter 9
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
It felt good to have things finally returned to normal, Hans thought to himself, as he took a leisurely stroll through one of the city's many gardens. The artificial sky did not look quite as impressive to Hans as it usually did, now that Hans had seen what the real sky looked like first hand, yet it was so well constructed that Hans couldn't pinpoint the difference between this sky and the real one.
Hans took a deep, relaxing breath. Things couldn't look better. Last night Bakes had made a speech to the people. He had promised to return democracy in two weeks. Jistap's dreadful new world order was history. Livius was on his way now to pick up Gaius and Pericula, who had been informed last night of the changes.
Hans was still thinking about Livius bringing Gaius and Pericula back home, when Livius himself rushed passed him. Hans immediately turned around and grabbed Livius' arm. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be picking up Gaius and Pericula now."
"The executor is refusing to open any of the doors. I can't get out of the city."
"What?"
"I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to see Bakes now."
Hans nodded his agreement. "Good idea, if any one can figure this out it's Bakes."
Gaius entered Pericula's tent. "The messenger said you wanted to see me?"
"Yes," Pericula held up her computer pad, "it's another message from Bakes." Gaius leaned over her shoulder, and Pericula pressed a button, revealing Bakes' face on the monitor.
"Greetings, Pericula and Gaius," Bakes said. "I hope you are both well." Pericula and Gaius both nodded. "I'll get right to the point. By this time Livius should have already picked you up. No doubt you're wondering where he is. Well, somehow, someway, someone managed to seal all the doors to the city. All the Watchers are trapped inside, and you are trapped outside."
"Wait a minute," Pericula interrupted, "are you saying that whoever did this has done it so well that even you can't undo what was done?"
"I am well known among the Watchers for my skill in manipulating the computers, but this is a mystery to me. Whoever did this knows more about computers then I do, then anyone in Watcher history ever did. I think we have two options to consider, either this person is the greatest genius in all of Fabulae, or we are dealing with someone who isn't a Watcher. Perhaps the people who designed this place."
Pericula gasped. "Are you serious?"
Bakes shrugged. "It's a good guess. This program definitely shows a greater understanding of the computers then I could otherwise explain. Anyway, the point is your on your own for now, perhaps forever. I don't know if I can ever get these doors to open again. I'll keep in touch, but until then you'll have to survive by yourself. I'll call you again soon." The monitor then went blank.
The news stunned Pericula. She just stood still for a moment, not believing what she had just heard. After a couple minutes, she shook herself out of the trance, and turned to put the computer pad away. Her back was to Gaius, and so she did not see him pick up the wooden chair that sat next to her bed. Gaius brought down the chair unto Pericula's head with all the strength he had. As chair splintered into many pieces, Pericula fell to the ground unconscious. Gaius laughed triumphantly as he tore up Pericula's tent, looking for the laser guns. When he found them, there would be no one to stop him this time. As Bakes said, he was on his own.
When Gaius finally stopped searching through Pericula's tent, it was unrecognizable. He had thrown everything out of place, leaving no corner unchecked, and yet he still had not found the guns. "Of course," he thought to himself, "she wouldn't hide the guns in her own tent, she knows that's the first place I'd look. The guns could be anywhere in the camp, but I'll find them."
Gaius rushed out of the tent, and ran toward the well. "Get me Blanka," he yelled, "and hurry."
Kile walked through the rows of tents. All the soldiers were out being drilled, and the camp was practically deserted. Kile could see no one around him.
Suddenly, an arrow flew past him. The arrow had come dangerously close to hitting him right in the back. Kile whirled around to see his attacker, but he saw no one. Whoever it was, he was hidden somewhere, probably behind a tent.
Kile's first impulse was to run. His foe obviously had the advantage, and until Kile could find out where he was hidden, he was a sitting duck. Kile suppressed the urge. If there was a murderer in the camp he needed to be found now. Kile drew his sword and took cover behind a tent.
No sooner had Kile leaned against the tent, when another arrow barely missed him. This time, the arrow had been shot from the other direction. Also, this time Kile could see his attacker. A man a couple tents down had shot the arrow. Kile charged towards him. The man realized he would not have time to fit another arrow, so he also drew his sword. The man parried Kile's first attack, a downward sweep made with the sword, then punched Kile with his left hand. Kile stumbled backwards a couple feet, but regained his balance in time to parry the mans thrust. The two began a furious sword fight, so furious that Kile didn't notice his other attacker, who had moved from his hiding place behind the tent and was now quietly moving behind Kile. He drew his sword, and ran so he could stab Kile in the back. Kile heard his footsteps, and moved out of the way just in time, receiving only a minor cut on his side.
Kile, realizing that two against one were not good odds, decided now might be a good time to leave the fight. He remembered the faces of the two soldiers, and they could be punished later. Kile ran with the two soldiers in pursuit.
Running as fast as he could, Kile took all sorts of sharp turns, weaving in and out of the tents in an attempt to lose his pursuers, but to no effect. Eventually, Kile's path led him right to Drusus.
Kile was surprised to see that Drusus was fighting two attackers of his own. One was in front of him. Drusus kicked this one, and he fell to the ground. Drusus then turned around to engage the other one, coming from behind. Drusus caught the mans wrist as the man tried to thrust his sword into him. Then Drusus punched the man with his left arm. While the man was still dazed, Drusus let go of his wrist and kicked him hard in the face. The man fell to the ground. Both men started to get up, and Drusus got ready to fight them, but when he heard Kile yelling for help, Drusus rushed to his defence.
Kile ran past Drusus. As soon as Kile was passed him, Drusus came to a stop. Kile turned around and came back to help Drusus. He engaged one of the men in a sword fight, while Drusus faced the other man.
Drusus' opponent, seeing that Drusus was unarmed, sneered and charged toward him. Drusus dodged his first sword thrust, then kicked the hand in which he held the sword. The sword flew out of his hand, and before the man knew what to do next, Drusus covered his face in a flurry of punches. Soon the man was on the ground.
Drusus then came over to help Kile. Drusus punched Kile's opponent several times from behind. Before the man could even turn around he was knocked to the ground.
"Lets get out of here," Kile said, "before they can get back on their feet." Kile and Drusus took to their heels, and didn't stop running until they were a safe distance away.
After they had recovered their breath, Kile turned to Drusus and said, "you're amazing. I can't believe you took down four men unarmed."
Drusus smiled. "I was trained in hand to hand fighting quite extensively in Quintel's court." Seeing the confused look on Kile's face, Drusus added, "it's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Kile shook his head confused. "Four assassins? What's going on? Why would anyone want to kill us?" Suddenly, Kile and Drusus both looked at each other. Each could tell the other was thinking the same thing he was.
"You don't think Gaius has anything to do with this?" Drusus asked.
"We'd better make sure Pericula is okay." Both men dashed off towards Pericula's tent.
Kirtten ran towards his tent. He could see someone was inside it. Kirtten burst through the doorway to see Gaius. "What are you doing?" he shouted. The tent was a mess. Kirtten's carefully ordered belongings had been thrown every which way, and Gaius was in the middle of the disaster. Gaius had his back to the door, and he turned around slowly. "What are you doing?" Kirtten repeated.
Gaius had a dagger in his hand, that he had positioned such that it was hidden by his arm. He threw it at Kirtten suddenly and without warning. The blade went right through Kirtten's left hand.
Kirtten yelled out in pain and fell to a kneeling position. He gritted his teeth against the pain, and pulled the dagger from his hand. Gaius drew his sword, one he had acquired during his stay in Calet, and ran toward Kirtten. Kirtten had no time to draw his sword, and simply steeled himself for the death blow. Gaius didn't kill Kirtten though, just threw him to the ground.
Gaius pointed his sword at Kirtten's throat. "Where are the laser guns?" he asked.
"I'm not telling you."
Gaius gave Kirtten a slash down his cheek with the sword. "Tell me or I'll kill you."
Kirtten gazed fearfully at Gaius. After a moment he said, "alright, you win. They're in Pericula's tent."
Gaius slashed Kirtten's other cheek. "You're lying to me. I'll give you one last chance to tell the truth or I'll cut off your arms."
Kirtten sighed, disgusted at himself for his cowardice. "They're in Kile's tent, buried under his bed in a chest."
Gaius smiled. From the look in Kirtten's eyes he was convinced he was telling the truth. "Thank you very much Kirtten." Gaius swung his sword, cutting off Kirtten's head. He then rushed toward Kile's tent.
Digging furiously in the ground, Gaius soon unearthed the chest. He pulled it out of the hole and set it on his lap. Then, with trembling fingers, Gaius opened it up. Both of the laser guns were there. Gaius shouted with delight. He rushed outside of the tent, firing both laser guns in his joy, shouting, "now, let chaos reign."
Gaius knew he was back in control. Blanka and his men were going to kill Pericula and the other senior officers. Gaius had already killed one of them. He cursed himself for not killing Pericula when he had the chance. No matter, he thought, I'll just kill her now.
Drusus rushed into Pericula's tent, with Kile close behind. Pericula lay motionless on the ground, face first. Drusus felt her pulse. "She's alive," he declared. Carefully, Drusus and Kile turned her over too her front side. "Go get some cold water," Drusus instructed. Kile ran out. Drusus looked and saw that Pericula was still breathing. The broken chair gave Drusus a pretty good idea of what had happened. Kile soon returned with the water, and Drusus gently began to apply it to Pericula's face. Slowly she regained conscious.
"What happened?" she asked.
Before Drusus could answer, Gaius appeared in the doorway holding both laser guns. "Well well well," he said, "three birds with one stone."
It felt good to have things finally returned to normal, Hans thought to himself, as he took a leisurely stroll through one of the city's many gardens. The artificial sky did not look quite as impressive to Hans as it usually did, now that Hans had seen what the real sky looked like first hand, yet it was so well constructed that Hans couldn't pinpoint the difference between this sky and the real one.
Hans took a deep, relaxing breath. Things couldn't look better. Last night Bakes had made a speech to the people. He had promised to return democracy in two weeks. Jistap's dreadful new world order was history. Livius was on his way now to pick up Gaius and Pericula, who had been informed last night of the changes.
Hans was still thinking about Livius bringing Gaius and Pericula back home, when Livius himself rushed passed him. Hans immediately turned around and grabbed Livius' arm. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be picking up Gaius and Pericula now."
"The executor is refusing to open any of the doors. I can't get out of the city."
"What?"
"I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to see Bakes now."
Hans nodded his agreement. "Good idea, if any one can figure this out it's Bakes."
Gaius entered Pericula's tent. "The messenger said you wanted to see me?"
"Yes," Pericula held up her computer pad, "it's another message from Bakes." Gaius leaned over her shoulder, and Pericula pressed a button, revealing Bakes' face on the monitor.
"Greetings, Pericula and Gaius," Bakes said. "I hope you are both well." Pericula and Gaius both nodded. "I'll get right to the point. By this time Livius should have already picked you up. No doubt you're wondering where he is. Well, somehow, someway, someone managed to seal all the doors to the city. All the Watchers are trapped inside, and you are trapped outside."
"Wait a minute," Pericula interrupted, "are you saying that whoever did this has done it so well that even you can't undo what was done?"
"I am well known among the Watchers for my skill in manipulating the computers, but this is a mystery to me. Whoever did this knows more about computers then I do, then anyone in Watcher history ever did. I think we have two options to consider, either this person is the greatest genius in all of Fabulae, or we are dealing with someone who isn't a Watcher. Perhaps the people who designed this place."
Pericula gasped. "Are you serious?"
Bakes shrugged. "It's a good guess. This program definitely shows a greater understanding of the computers then I could otherwise explain. Anyway, the point is your on your own for now, perhaps forever. I don't know if I can ever get these doors to open again. I'll keep in touch, but until then you'll have to survive by yourself. I'll call you again soon." The monitor then went blank.
The news stunned Pericula. She just stood still for a moment, not believing what she had just heard. After a couple minutes, she shook herself out of the trance, and turned to put the computer pad away. Her back was to Gaius, and so she did not see him pick up the wooden chair that sat next to her bed. Gaius brought down the chair unto Pericula's head with all the strength he had. As chair splintered into many pieces, Pericula fell to the ground unconscious. Gaius laughed triumphantly as he tore up Pericula's tent, looking for the laser guns. When he found them, there would be no one to stop him this time. As Bakes said, he was on his own.
When Gaius finally stopped searching through Pericula's tent, it was unrecognizable. He had thrown everything out of place, leaving no corner unchecked, and yet he still had not found the guns. "Of course," he thought to himself, "she wouldn't hide the guns in her own tent, she knows that's the first place I'd look. The guns could be anywhere in the camp, but I'll find them."
Gaius rushed out of the tent, and ran toward the well. "Get me Blanka," he yelled, "and hurry."
Kile walked through the rows of tents. All the soldiers were out being drilled, and the camp was practically deserted. Kile could see no one around him.
Suddenly, an arrow flew past him. The arrow had come dangerously close to hitting him right in the back. Kile whirled around to see his attacker, but he saw no one. Whoever it was, he was hidden somewhere, probably behind a tent.
Kile's first impulse was to run. His foe obviously had the advantage, and until Kile could find out where he was hidden, he was a sitting duck. Kile suppressed the urge. If there was a murderer in the camp he needed to be found now. Kile drew his sword and took cover behind a tent.
No sooner had Kile leaned against the tent, when another arrow barely missed him. This time, the arrow had been shot from the other direction. Also, this time Kile could see his attacker. A man a couple tents down had shot the arrow. Kile charged towards him. The man realized he would not have time to fit another arrow, so he also drew his sword. The man parried Kile's first attack, a downward sweep made with the sword, then punched Kile with his left hand. Kile stumbled backwards a couple feet, but regained his balance in time to parry the mans thrust. The two began a furious sword fight, so furious that Kile didn't notice his other attacker, who had moved from his hiding place behind the tent and was now quietly moving behind Kile. He drew his sword, and ran so he could stab Kile in the back. Kile heard his footsteps, and moved out of the way just in time, receiving only a minor cut on his side.
Kile, realizing that two against one were not good odds, decided now might be a good time to leave the fight. He remembered the faces of the two soldiers, and they could be punished later. Kile ran with the two soldiers in pursuit.
Running as fast as he could, Kile took all sorts of sharp turns, weaving in and out of the tents in an attempt to lose his pursuers, but to no effect. Eventually, Kile's path led him right to Drusus.
Kile was surprised to see that Drusus was fighting two attackers of his own. One was in front of him. Drusus kicked this one, and he fell to the ground. Drusus then turned around to engage the other one, coming from behind. Drusus caught the mans wrist as the man tried to thrust his sword into him. Then Drusus punched the man with his left arm. While the man was still dazed, Drusus let go of his wrist and kicked him hard in the face. The man fell to the ground. Both men started to get up, and Drusus got ready to fight them, but when he heard Kile yelling for help, Drusus rushed to his defence.
Kile ran past Drusus. As soon as Kile was passed him, Drusus came to a stop. Kile turned around and came back to help Drusus. He engaged one of the men in a sword fight, while Drusus faced the other man.
Drusus' opponent, seeing that Drusus was unarmed, sneered and charged toward him. Drusus dodged his first sword thrust, then kicked the hand in which he held the sword. The sword flew out of his hand, and before the man knew what to do next, Drusus covered his face in a flurry of punches. Soon the man was on the ground.
Drusus then came over to help Kile. Drusus punched Kile's opponent several times from behind. Before the man could even turn around he was knocked to the ground.
"Lets get out of here," Kile said, "before they can get back on their feet." Kile and Drusus took to their heels, and didn't stop running until they were a safe distance away.
After they had recovered their breath, Kile turned to Drusus and said, "you're amazing. I can't believe you took down four men unarmed."
Drusus smiled. "I was trained in hand to hand fighting quite extensively in Quintel's court." Seeing the confused look on Kile's face, Drusus added, "it's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Kile shook his head confused. "Four assassins? What's going on? Why would anyone want to kill us?" Suddenly, Kile and Drusus both looked at each other. Each could tell the other was thinking the same thing he was.
"You don't think Gaius has anything to do with this?" Drusus asked.
"We'd better make sure Pericula is okay." Both men dashed off towards Pericula's tent.
Kirtten ran towards his tent. He could see someone was inside it. Kirtten burst through the doorway to see Gaius. "What are you doing?" he shouted. The tent was a mess. Kirtten's carefully ordered belongings had been thrown every which way, and Gaius was in the middle of the disaster. Gaius had his back to the door, and he turned around slowly. "What are you doing?" Kirtten repeated.
Gaius had a dagger in his hand, that he had positioned such that it was hidden by his arm. He threw it at Kirtten suddenly and without warning. The blade went right through Kirtten's left hand.
Kirtten yelled out in pain and fell to a kneeling position. He gritted his teeth against the pain, and pulled the dagger from his hand. Gaius drew his sword, one he had acquired during his stay in Calet, and ran toward Kirtten. Kirtten had no time to draw his sword, and simply steeled himself for the death blow. Gaius didn't kill Kirtten though, just threw him to the ground.
Gaius pointed his sword at Kirtten's throat. "Where are the laser guns?" he asked.
"I'm not telling you."
Gaius gave Kirtten a slash down his cheek with the sword. "Tell me or I'll kill you."
Kirtten gazed fearfully at Gaius. After a moment he said, "alright, you win. They're in Pericula's tent."
Gaius slashed Kirtten's other cheek. "You're lying to me. I'll give you one last chance to tell the truth or I'll cut off your arms."
Kirtten sighed, disgusted at himself for his cowardice. "They're in Kile's tent, buried under his bed in a chest."
Gaius smiled. From the look in Kirtten's eyes he was convinced he was telling the truth. "Thank you very much Kirtten." Gaius swung his sword, cutting off Kirtten's head. He then rushed toward Kile's tent.
Digging furiously in the ground, Gaius soon unearthed the chest. He pulled it out of the hole and set it on his lap. Then, with trembling fingers, Gaius opened it up. Both of the laser guns were there. Gaius shouted with delight. He rushed outside of the tent, firing both laser guns in his joy, shouting, "now, let chaos reign."
Gaius knew he was back in control. Blanka and his men were going to kill Pericula and the other senior officers. Gaius had already killed one of them. He cursed himself for not killing Pericula when he had the chance. No matter, he thought, I'll just kill her now.
Drusus rushed into Pericula's tent, with Kile close behind. Pericula lay motionless on the ground, face first. Drusus felt her pulse. "She's alive," he declared. Carefully, Drusus and Kile turned her over too her front side. "Go get some cold water," Drusus instructed. Kile ran out. Drusus looked and saw that Pericula was still breathing. The broken chair gave Drusus a pretty good idea of what had happened. Kile soon returned with the water, and Drusus gently began to apply it to Pericula's face. Slowly she regained conscious.
"What happened?" she asked.
Before Drusus could answer, Gaius appeared in the doorway holding both laser guns. "Well well well," he said, "three birds with one stone."
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