The Power of Gnaris

by Les Bill Gates

  “The city seems so planned. What’s that wide avenue running eastwards from the memorial?”

  “That’s called the National Mall.”

  “And the building at the centre of the city?”

  “That’s the Capitol Building. It’s where the Congress meets.”

  “Congress?”

  “It’s the legislative chamber. They that makes the laws and runs the place meet there. And that other white building over there ” He pointed towards the north. “ is the White House. That’s where President Kowalski lives. He’s the real leader.”

  At that moment, another building on the southern bank of the river caught Forster’s eye. The building had five sides.

  “That’s the Pentagon,” said Jesse. “It’s the defense headquarters for Ziemia.”

  Forster surmised that the city resembled many cities he had seen during his travels throughout the Milky Way, but he noticed one important difference.

  “Why is the city surrounded by a high barbed wire fence?”

  “The Technocrats built it to keep us out, and the Prehistorics and Ancients, of course. It’s the same with the other cities.”

  “Are there many other cities?”

  “There are many others, both here and on continents in other parts of the planet, across the oceans. But they all have to be protected from outsiders  those, like us, who have not learned the technology yet.”

  “Don’t you want the advances and the advantages that technology would bring you?”

  “No, Sir, we like things just the way they are.”

  Lolena interrupted and spoke to Forster. “It’s time we entered the city,” she said. “The shadows are lengthening. It will serve us well to enter the city at a time when the eyes of the city-dwelling humanoids struggle to see in the twilight. There are many unanswered questions; and it seems that we will not get the answers to most of them from Jesse and his friends.”

  “You’re right there, Ma’am,” said Jesse after Forster had translated. “I’ve told you about all I know. My men and I cannot risk hanging around here any longer. If we get caught, we may be taken inside the city and imprisoned; or, worse still, we may become like them. There’s the West Gate.” He pointed to a gate in the perimeter fence.

  “I suggest you sleep under the bridge tonight with the homeless. The friars often visit them to distribute food and pray with them. They even sleep there some nights.”

  “Homeless?”

  “Yes, these folks have no home, no job, and no family to care for them.”

  Forster translated, and Lolena gasped. “How can this be? Karavec always look after each other, even though we do not have families like the humans do. How can these people neglect each other? How do they survive?”

  “They rely on the charity of others, like the Franciscan Friars,” said Jesse.

  “But we don’t have any food,” said Forster.

  Jesse reached into the back of the wagon. “Take this,” he said, passing them three loaves of bread and some fruit.

  “In the morning, cross the bridge, follow 14th Street until you come to Pennsylvania Avenue. Then you should be able to see the White House.”

  Forster and Lolena donned the cloaks that Jesse’s men had stolen from the friars outside St. John’s church, and pulled the cowls over their heads.

  “We must go now,” said Jesse. “So, we’ll say adios, and good luck.”

  A few moments later, Jesse and his men had disappeared in a cloud of dust, racing away towards the setting sun, taking with them the wagon that Forster and Lolena had ridden on.”

  “Come on, let’s go,” said Forster. “Give me your hand. I will help guide you.”

  “Thank you,” said Lolena.

  They descended towards the gate, with Forster leading and Lolena behind, resting her right hand on his left shoulder, and carrying her white stick in her left hand.

  On the other side of the gate, they could see a bridge that spanned the river just beyond The Pentagon.

  Forster noticed flying machines with rotor blades on their tops that stood on pads between the Pentagon building and the river. No doubt they travel from one city to another using those machines, he thought. He recalled seeing pictures of similar machines on the cosmoweb. Helicopters, that’s what they used to call them.

  When they approached the gate, the guards jumped to attention. The Technocrats inside the city had erected the fence to separate themselves from the other inhabitants of Ziemia, and neither the people of the city nor outsiders passed through the gate often.

  “Who goes there?” one of the guards asked.

  He received an unexpected answer.

  “Tell them the truth,” Lolena whispered to Forster.

  “I am Jim Forster an exile from the planet Earth, and this is Lolena from Hikon.”

  The second guard peered deep into Lolena’s eyes. “Are you some kind of crazies? Why is your face green? It’s not Halloween.”

  His companion laughed.

  “No, we really are from other planets,” said Forster. We wish for an audience with President Kowalski.”

  The second guard looked at his companion, and laughed again. “So, this crazy man thinks he can just walk in here and expect to meet with the president.”

  “What’s wrong with him,” said the first guard, pointing at Lolena. “Why does he not talk? What’s that white stick? Is it a weapon?”

  Lolena took her goggles from her pocket and placed them over her eyes, concentrating her mind on the task ahead. Then she threw back her cowl. “She keeps her head covered because she is not like you. I am Karavec, and you must do what I say.”

  The guards did not understand the Karavec language, but the message soon became clear.

  It took just a few seconds for her to reach out with her gnaris to Barrow who was many kilometres away in the west. Moments later, a stream of power passed from Barrow across the void to Lolena, and instantly transmitted through her goggles, resulting in a flash of energy aimed at the first guard’s legs; then another flash directed at the second guard.

  The two guards squirmed on the ground, howling in pain.

  “What the ?” one of them began, but Lolena cut him short.

  “You chose to mock me, a Karavec. You are a lowlife that would not even be fit to be a servant on Hikon. Now, open the gate and let me and my companion pass through. After we have passed, you will close the gate and will not remember a thing. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Lolena, Great leader of the Karavec and member of the Council, I hear and obey.”

  “I also obey,” said the other rising to his feet and grappling at his belt for the key ring that held the keys to unlock the gate.

  Five minutes later, Forster and Lolena strolled through the gate that led to the city of Washington. Lolena had removed her goggles and replaced her cowl.

  “How did you do that?” Forster asked.

  “It is the gnaris,” she explained. “But I could not have done it alone. I needed the gnaris of Barrow to aid me. Without the gnaris of the Great Savant, I only have limited power.”

  “And how did that guard know that you are a leader of the Karavec and member of the Council? How did they understand your words? You spoke Karavec, yet they understood and replied in your language.”

  “The gnaris spoke to him. When I directed the power from the goggles towards the guards, they momentarily knew me, knew Barrow and the Karavec. They knew and understood everything about us, but only for a few moments. As soon as the power of the gnaris was withdrawn, they ceased to know us. Now they have forgotten everything; even that we were there, and that they opened the gate for us.”

  “I have forgotten the power of gnaris,” said Forster scratching his head. “I still find it hard to understand.”

  “It is the Karavec way. You are not Karavec, so you do not understand. However, I cannot continue to use the gnaris. It is draining, and I can no longer locate the Great Savant. It seems that he is travelling in th
e air. What can this mean?”

  “More unanswered questions,” said Forster. “But, if you cannot use the gnaris, we must do as Jesse suggests, and rest for the night under the shadow of the bridge.”

  “I can still sense with my gnaris,” said Lolena, “and I can sense that there are people under the bridge.”

  “They must be the homeless people,” said Forster.

  Some of the homeless sat huddled together for warmth, sharing a blanket or a cardboard box to protect them from the chilling wind. Some were swigging from bottles of liquor, while others lay in a semi-stupor on the cold concrete.

  But the homeless were not alone. Two friars had already arrived.

  “Wait,” said Forster, pulling Lolena back into the shadows. “Those friars will recognise that we are imposters.”

  The two friars were attired just like Forster and Lolena. One carried a bag of bread rolls and the other a pot full of some steaming liquid. They placed the food on the ground, then stood, put their hands together and closed their eyes before reciting some kind of chant.

  “They pray to their god,” whispered Forster.

  At that moment, there was a loud whirring noise when one of the helicopters passed low over the bridge.

  “How do they tolerate those primitive machines?” Lolena asked.

  After completing the prayer, the friars began distributing the bread, and poured cups of soup for the hungry wastrels.

  “They are kind people, and I do not wish them harm,” said Lolena, “but we need to sleep here tonight. Set your ray gun to stun and put them to sleep. In fact, put all these creatures to sleep for several hours so that we may also rest.

  * * * * *

  Early the next morning, the two imposters emerged from under the bridge wearing their disguises. The real friars and the homeless people still slept.

  When they reached the far side of the bridge, they turned north heading towards the White House, the residence of President Kowalski. They found themselves walking along 14th Street, a busy three-laned highway.

  “I wonder why the streets have such strange names,” said Forster.

  Lolena pricked up her ears, and listened. “What kind of vehicles do I hear?” she asked. “They’re very noisy, and I can smell fumes.” In the absence of sight, Lolena possessed keenly developed senses of hearing and smell which aided her gnaris.

  “I have read about these vehicles,” said Forster. “They are archaic vehicles that were in common use on Earth in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. They are powered by a liquid fossil fuel they call gasoline. They have engines that use a controlled explosion of the fuel to drive pistons that turn wheels used to propel the vehicle forward.”

  “How crude! I thought these people had entered the technological age.”

  “They are obviously just at the beginning of the technological age. They still have a lot to learn if they are to advance further.”

  While they made the three kilometre walk to the president’s residence, Lolena used her white stick to tap her way through the busy streets, but also relied on Forster to lead her along the sidewalk, in some places packed with pedestrians bustling their way to work. They also had to cross many busy roads.

  They passed several white buildings that were just four or five stories high. One, on their left, was called the Financial Management Building, and another on the right had its name engraved in large letters on its facade.

  “It says Department of The Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing,” said Forster. “Many of these building have a flag flying from their rooftops. I guess these must be government buildings.”

  “Describe the flag to me.”

  “It has red and white stripes and white stars on a blue background in one corner. I believe I’ve seen that flag before on the cosmoweb. It’s a flag from the United States on planet Earth.”

  They passed another building on the left named the Holocaust Museum.

  “What is the meaning of holocaust?”

  “It means the killing and annihilation of one race by another. This happened a long time ago on Earth.”

  “How primitive! We Karavec practise sacrifice to the gods, but that is for a purpose, to appease the gods. We do not kill or annihilate another race. Why did these people do these barbaric things?”

  “It must have been out of jealousy, or greed. As I said, these people have a lot to learn.”

  They reached a major intersection. The road that crossed theirs bore a sign with the words ‘Independence Avenue’.

  “Independence is another strange legacy from the history of planet Earth. It means that one group of people remained under the control of another until they were eventually given their freedom as an independent nation, after either working for it or, in most cases, fighting for it.”

  “More fighting. Don’t these people ever tire of fighting each other?”

  After they had crossed Independence Avenue, they found themselves in a park area lined with tree-like plants. Towards the west, Forster saw the tall needle-like obelisk that Jesse had spoken about, the Washington Monument.

  They crossed two more intersections  Jefferson Drive and Madison Drive.

  “Jesse told us that Jefferson and Madison were two other former presidents of the United States,” said Forster.

  At the next major intersection with Constitution Avenue, the parkland finished and they entered another area of government buildings, one called the Department of Commerce.

  They passed D St on the right, before arriving at the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue. Where the streets intersected, the White House building came into sight towards the north-west. In the opposite direction in the distance, Forster recognised the Capitol Building that Jesse had pointed out to them the previous day.

  They turned left into Pennsylvania Avenue, and walked towards the west. Forster noticed another park area on their right called Pershing Park. Then they came to another intersection with 15th Street, which they crossed to reach E St, a road closed to traffic. They turned right into East Executive Avenue, which they followed until they arrived at the south east gate of the White House, facing Hamilton Place.

  Set in large grounds, with gardens and lawns tended by an army of gardeners, the official residence of the president of Ziemia was surrounded by a perimeter fence, and armed sentries guarded its gates. The sentries wore black uniforms and peaked hats, and carried automatic weapons.

  “How are we going to get inside?” asked Forster.

  “The same way we got inside the city.”

  After Lolena had used her gnaris, enhanced by that of Barrow, they passed unhindered into the grounds of the White House, and the guards remembered nothing. The South Lawn had large areas of mown grass, interspersed with clumps of tree-like plants, gardens, tennis courts, a swimming pool, and many other recreational facilities for the use of the president and his family.

  A helicopter stood in the middle of the South Lawn.

  The White House, a grand building with colonnades, was constructed from sandstone and, as its name suggests, was coloured white. The flag with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue background in one corner, fluttered from its rooftop.

  Keeping their heads low, they moved from the cover of one tree or bush to another until they came within earshot of the building.

  Forster stopped to question Lolena. “Now, tell me how we can even get inside the building, let alone manage to see to the president? Don’t tell me you’re going to use the gnaris again.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” said Barrow.

  Forster looked up towards the source of the voice. Lolena just smiled. She had known from the moment that she had used her gnaris to gain access to the grounds that the Great Savant was close by.

  The Great Savant of the Karavec stood on a balcony of the building, side by side with an imposing humanoid figure who Forster knew instinctively must be President Kowalski.

  Chapter 13 – The Meeting of Leaders

&nb
sp; “The leader of an inferior species should be treated with contempt.”

   The Book of Karavec (31, 49)

  The Great Savant and Elena had escaped from the Prehistorics, and had just reached the far side of a small river that meandered its way through a copse of tree-like plants when an arrow whistled past Barrow’s ear, and embedded itself into the trunk of one of the plants.

  “What was that?” Elena asked.

  “I don’t know exactly, but get down low. Hurry!”

  Barrow pulled Elena down with him, hoping that the undergrowth would give them some protection. He glanced up and saw a feathered object stuck fast in the solid crust of the plant.

  “It’s a crude projectile device. It must have been propelled by some kind of weapon,” he whispered.

  The next moment, a group of three brown-skinned men, each wearing nothing but a loincloth and a feathered headdress, stood above them, their weapons drawn. They had arrived in silence.

  One of them spoke. He used another strange language, but, the implication of his words was clear.

  Barrow wasn’t going to wait for the threat to be carried out. He donned his goggles once more and looked through them at the first savage. He concentrated his mind, and a flash of light passed from the goggles towards the man’s arms, causing him to drop the weapon. Two more flashes followed in quick succession, and all three men soon squirmed in agony on the ground. Barrow retrieved one of their weapons.

  “Just as I thought,” he said. “These weapons use the tension of a taut string, or maybe it’s the gut of an animal, to propel a dart-like object towards their prey. It is a primitive weapon, but no doubt very effective.”

  “Lord Barrow,” said Elena, tugging at the sleeve of the Great Savant. “We must get back to the ship without delay.” She stood and offered her hand. “Lord Barrow ”

  The three savages became very agitated. One of them shouted out to the others, “Bardzo.”

  There was a babble of excitement.

  “Bardzo, Bardzo,” the other two repeated.

  The one who appeared to be their leader raised himself into a kneeling position, and bowed his head. The other two followed suit.