“Planets? They killed children and elders…”
“Saurians were born adults, in womb-tanks – no children. They had factories of planetary size, producing billions of them each month and destroying any other form of life. They needed a large number to enhance their Field and split the universe in two.”
“You sent some spheres before I fought Borg.” I abruptly changed the subject. Should I ask her to erase that knowledge? Why did she pass it to me? What is so important to worth the risk?
“I cannot create such spheres; Time sensed a nexus in that event and took precautions, but those entities have a lot of knowledge about this game.” I remembered having the same sentiment of deception. Too many deceptions. “They came with a stealth alternative. Without the Erins... We have to thank them ... later of course.” A diplomatic way to say: the enemy we confront is stronger than anybody expected. I was mute, not very often hearing this kind of apology from her. “Back to work now, things are starting again from seconds before the ‘flies’ appeared.” My glance told her something. “No more flies.” She smiled, but for the first time I thought of being able to read something behind that smile, she did not feel confident of the outcome anymore. It was not her voice or image; it was something deeper, at a level I had not explored before. Something new, and this novelty helped to overcome my fear. A good sign, I thought; I was not yet fully able to interpret it, but it was a good sign nevertheless.
The meeting continued as if nothing had happened, for them that attack did not take place in this new timeline, and finished fast. I went out talking with Armin.
“Something has changed in you.” He stopped avoiding my eyes. Not very Erin this behavior and anxiety came over me again. Please no more mines, I pleaded, to I don’t know whom. “It’s like ...” and he stopped again. I dug my hands deep in my pockets to hide their shaking. I forced all my senses to feel some chrono-particles. Nothing. I was the last one to perceive the ‘flies’ ... after the Erins. What the hell is happening?
“Like?” I pressed him to speak. “It’s not … I hope ...” I made an inarticulate gesture. “Chrono-particles again,” I whispered like a boiling pot.
He turned toward me as if suddenly remembering where he was. “No, no ...” It was a quick, short outburst; he seemed at a loss for words, unsure of how to continue. “I apologize in advance.” Not able to answer I tried a detached gesture with one hand, an unspoken: continue. “When Erin children become young adults, their mind signature changes.” And? My gesture promted him. “I feel the same thing in you now ... a hundred times fainter, but I feel it. Only Erins have this.” I almost laughed, all that fear for nothing. A hundred times less developed than an Erin child. I had risen to a higher ‘level’. A child! We are really... What will Houston say about my ‘enhancement’? Only Erins have this... Maybe nothing, she was not aware of my subconscious reading of her hidden fear. But, was she really not aware?
*
“Armin, tell me about the Nogi, not about the enemies we face today, but about the Nogi as they are in their villages, in their houses, in their families. Do they like music, do they dance? Tell me how they love their children and about their beautiful wives. Can you describe all this for me?” My encyclopedia had almost nothing. The dawn was no longer newborn, with the sun moving at a snail's pace over the mountain’s edge. The Alutus River ran swiftly from the mountains, winding far below our feet, with the energy of a young child. We were looking for a place to stop the invasion, here where the high rocks would take away their advantage in fighting skills. The bows would do what our swords could not. I hope. Still, having the wall at our backs was not without danger. We would be on the edge as many would try to climb from the other side and fall upon us. The trappers could be trapped.
“Why do you need this?” Duras asked while measuring the peak, trying to guess, much like me, what kind of cover it might provide to our archers. “We did not choose this war, but in a fight you need resolve. If you escape, you will have all the time in the world to remember their children and wives. Now I can only imagine what will become of our children if they win.”
“Fear is not a good counselor, Duras, when planning a battle,” Armin interrupted his bitter tirade.
“They are stirred by the black hats, but... Was there any fighting in the past?” I asked Duras. Armin answered in his place.
“A long time ago some Nogi took shelter in the Northern Mountains, where they meet the endless Northern Plain where they usually lived. The Munti attacked and threw them back into the frozen north, with help from Travelers.”
“We had to do something.” But Duras’ voice was uneasy. “They were pouring into our lands ... we could not allow such an invasion ... more would have come ... they were a menace we had to respond to.” There was a moment of uncomfortable quiet; he glared away and seemed at a loss for words, unsure of how to continue.
“And the black hats helped you?” I asked, trying to make him understand.
“Yes, at that time they were still the good Travelers, very different from the ones we meet today.” Duras said dryly.
“They were the same, but their motivations matched yours. They used your fear to make you attack the Nogi. Now they are using their fear to attack you. We have to break this circle of fear. If not, nothing will ever really be achieved. Fighting will never end if Travelers can exploit such weaknesses.”
I wanted to add more, but Duras continued before I could say anything else. “Their minds are evil. How do you think they can change?” He grinned, and the confident mask he was wearing to appease his troop suddenly fell. My mind produced a surprising sound of cracking glass – so strong was his fear, and contagious. I have to stop this.
“Nothing is entirely good or bad. There is a tree of good and evil deeply rooted within each of us, with branches fighting endlessly for the light of our soul, a tree about which we have little knowledge, although it is more us than anything else. We can ignore it, but it will never ignore us. When thoughts gather in our minds, branches and leaves form on our trees. The new ones take the light while the old fade into shadow and slowly disappear. This is how we are made, and the Nogi are no different from us in this aspect.”
“And which branches grow faster?” asked Delena, appearing from behind the rocks.
“The ones you feed.”
They went before dusk, leaving me alone with my thoughts. On top of the peak, a white form moved in the moonlight, leaping from stone to stone, occasionally motionless, slender beneath the immense sky, then bounding through the shadows to reappear at the far side of the darkness, beneath the dark blue ridge, gliding smoothly in my direction with a speed I couldn't match even if I had tried to run. A ghost? And a ghost it was. Somehow, I was not afraid and I did not run from his majestic appearance. For long seconds I stared at his face, made of white shadow and barely visible in the vaguely human-shaped flow of white light. He then spoke directly in my mind:
“Your assumption is correct; the trap you want to lay here is nothing but your own grave. There is a second Nogi army behind the mountain, waiting to pass over the ridge.” A flow of images opened inside my mind, a great army besieging a mountain transformed into a fortress. It was not difficult to observe the Roman and Dacian soldiers fighting bitterly.
“What you see is Sarmizegetusa in AD 105,” he said in answer to my mute question. “I am Deceneus. The second one.” A trace of a smile appeared in the white shadow. “My first legacy was destroyed then, when I was still too weak to confront the Travelers. Now I am no longer in the game and merely an observer, but even so I cannot have my second legacy destroyed by the evil.”
“We have to thank you for saving our lives when the SAT-mine exploded.” He brushed off my words with a delicate gesture. “Are you not in danger of being caught by Factions?”
“I am their distant future, far beyond anything they can do. Only the Black Eye can stop me, but he chose not to in this particular case. Or a SAT-mine.”
“Why ar
e you here?”
“In time you will learn what your heart already knows. You are my offspring; you are here to fulfill this task. Do not let me down, and do not curse Houston for her disappearance, I have pushed for this and changed your dream. I cut your umbilical cord to her; you were too dependent and this was stopping your evolution.” He finally solved the puzzle of Houston’s disappearance. Then he smiled, “you resemble my former material apparition so much.” There is no image left of Deceneus so I had to believe him. Then he smiled again, “this has some unintended consequences.”
“Our physical resemblance?” I asked, unconvinced, what importance could this have after some millennia? There is no one still alive to jump on me and say: “Glad to meet you Deceneus, when can I have the money you borrowed from me?”
“No, your signature in The Field matches my old one. Some field crawlers have difficulties in distinguishing between the old me and you.” The ovoid resurfaced, but I sensed that it was more and not sure what ‘more’ really meant, I wanted to ask, but did not have the courage. “They will interact with you even when you don’t have the right level to be in direct contact with them.”
“My dreams...”
“Yes,” he confirmed my guess, “and more; remember the Nefertiti episode. A crawler played with you because of this misunderstanding. The ovoid was a different case, I played the crawler; Observers are living crawlers scouting The Field for the Black Eye.” Would there be any advantage to this apart from having fun with those crawlers? “That time will come; this mission is not so dangerous as to request such extreme communication.” If war, SAT-mines, and all the mess around is not ‘so dangerous’ what the hell can I expect on the next levels? A cold shiver closed my mind.
“Why did they want to destroy Dacia?” I abruptly changed the subject.
He smiled, but agreed to the change. “It was a free state with no slavery. There were many tribes abhorring slavery, but there was no other state built without relying on slaves' work force. This was what drove the Romans, already perverted to slavery, to destroy Dacia. From that day until today all states were born based on diverse types of forced work: from slaves to serfs and today pauper workers. Do not protest; it is the same system only in more subtle forms of enslavement. It was a continuous fight between the original tribal Europe made of free people and the slavery mentality coming from the Middle East. Cretans, Greeks, Romans, all of them lost the battle against this infiltration run by Phoenician, Babylonian and Egyptian money makers, as it was later with the US, France or Germany, the last ones trying to forge something based on this old tradition of free people. This is the reason for your actual problems.”
“You have greater power than she has. Why are you not helping people here?”
“I cannot say that I have greater power; she is the Third Pillar, part of The Universe’s fabric, and she has the strength derived from his power, as I have myself. I have more liberty to react, but I do not have enough of it to help here or anywhere else on a regular basis and with brute force. When ascending to this position in the council we have to leave any affinities back in the material world. The direct action is left to the Factions with their good and bad. We are mostly arbiters but sometimes we overstep the laws as they are also doing. Where there is power, there should also be responsibility. Once in a while we still interfere in discreet ways, and The Field’s crawlers close their eyes; many of them were once human beings, then Observers before retiring in The Field. I cannot push Factions out of this world, they have their own role to fulfill, and with some exceptions, they are doing it well. They are afraid of the Erins as many of them disappeared in past universe enhancements. Do not blame them too much. Now I have to leave.” He stopped me from asking a new question.
“What can I do in nine days?” I whispered, but he was already gone, leaving me in deeper solitude than before. So this is your surprise Houston. Shortly after, I heard noises coming from the valley and soon Armin and Duras appeared, followed by other Munti warriors.
“What was that?” Duras asked. “Who was here?” Armin’s deeper knowledge prompted a different question.
“I have an answer for you, Armin. Maybe this will satisfy some parts of your endless questions about my origins, as it was indeed a person meeting with me here. I encountered the other Deceneus, the one hidden deep inside your old memories. He is my ancestor.”
“Then you were born on this planet? Altamira was not sure about this.” I could not answer his half question, half statement. If this is the proof of being born here, is Deceneus Dacian? Or Baragan?
*
A full moon was beginning to rise and peered through the upper edges of the fog that clung stubbornly around the crest. I settled far from the campfires. The night, almost silent and almost dark, suited me, I needed to be alone. I lay down in the grass, eyes fixed on the panorama of the stars, doing nothing and thinking nothing for minutes, then slowly starting to consider all the data about the Nogi that Houston had inserted into my mind. I did not see at that moment what I now consider to be one of the greatest ironies of fate, preparing a war in such a romantic place, on the infinite plain under the infinite starry sky. A Nogi portrait is in no way different from the head of any Nordic human, reddish blonde hair and blue eyes. The full picture tells a different story, a human head and torso on a yeti-like lower body, almost seven feet tall, with almost two hundred kilos of brute force ready to fight any enemy in a moment. I asked Armin about their speed.
“They are faster than me and I am faster than Borg was.” He was very loose in describing their capabilities. Thank you, I protested in my mind, I feel more secure for learning that they are much faster than me or the Munti. “They fight with heavy axes which have just been upgraded by Travelers from stone to steel and double edged. If a Nogi encounters a bear, even bare-handed, I see no chance that the bear will win.” This prompted some new thoughts in me.
“Are you also able to beat a bear with bare hands?” He looked uneasy, maybe for my comparing him with a Nogi. At times, I felt there was so much difference between our mentalities we had trouble understanding each other, something that never happened with Baragans or the Munti. The effect of their quantum brain, for sure.
“We don't fight bears with bare hands, while they do sometimes for initiation rituals, but if a situation like this arrives, we would take our chances.”
At first view, the statement about killing a bear with their bare hands seems exaggerated, but a Nogi is not the equivalent of a large human. His biology and genetics are different, with much stronger bones and muscles derived from different protein chains, around three times stronger than a human’s in the same section, and that is a lot; Borg had little physical heritage from his father and was still much stronger than me.
I fell asleep with difficulty, and all night black Travelers haunted my dreams, carrying red placards covered in dark letters: Bye bye, you are leaving in nine days. I know; it was a stupid dream.
*
“I met Deceneus, the real one,” I told Houston, as if she would not already know. Do you feel that I match him? I wanted to ask, but I could not. And for the first time I wanted Houston to read my mind again in our discussions. If you are grown up you are supposed to know what to ask, and how. “Is he really from Earth?”
“Your old fixation of being the heart of the Universe. No, he was born here, as were Zalmoxis and Burebista, yet they were born from immigrants coming from far away. We tried to fix things on your hopeless planet. Some Travelers had a different idea: they killed Burebista and chased Deceneus back here. I hope that you learned something from him.” She bluntly stopped my thoughts.
“I have, and that something created more questions than answers.” Somehow I had the feeling she had guessed my question, that grown-up axiom again. “This world is too complicated. Maybe you can tell this to the Black Eye.” She smiled but did not answer. “Can you make me stronger than a Nogi?”
“Do you also need some kryptonite and the abilit
y to catch bullets between your teeth? Even if you could kill a Nogi in a fight, you would never be able to destroy an army with your sword.”
“Then, what can I do?” I desperately asked. “I cannot fight any Nogi, neither can the Munti. The Erins have some slight chance but they are so few. We are like the Amerindians fighting the Spanish conquistadores. What about curare?” I asked with sudden inspiration. “That would give us the advantage we badly need. We could kill them from a safe distance.”
“Curare? Why not a nuclear bomb? It would bring a clean finish to the war and bring peace and prosperity over this world.” Then she probably felt my deep unhappiness. “To make you feel safer, I will create two knives with poisoned points and blades. Think of them as last-resort mortal weapons. They will have an effect only on Nogi and Erins but are safe for you or the Munti.” The next moment, they were on both my arms, held by leather straps.
Io Deceneus: Journal of a Time Traveler (The Living Universe) Page 35
