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Back on Helionia, Marot Pallas was giving a press conference, he was reporting to the world all that had befallen him within the dark domain.
“It is my belief that the dark domain is probably on a planet deep within the forbidden dark nebula, as I never saw any stars in the night sky during the entire time that I spent within that most terrible of places, and the skies were clear of clouds for almost the entire time. This fact may be why so many people lost their lives there, they disobeyed our religious teachings, and paid for their blasphemy with their lives, I was only saved due to the heroism of the Orionists who had entered into the domain to save me from a similar fate. The gods saved them because their act was righteous, and as for myself, well I was forced to enter into the domain against my will by four thugs.”
“Is it your opinion then that the portal be closed up now, and never be reopened?” A reporter asked.
“Yes it is, for no one should be allowed access to the dark nebula until permission is granted by the High Priests of Helionia.”
Across town, and in another press conference, Ares Fortuna was telling another strange story, it concerned the fate of the ancient Heliot space fleet and its destruction by alien mass murderers. He had decided to release this news when Tyler returned to Helionia, but he had just received news that the Orionists were all dead, so now he decided to release the news to ensure his victory over Marot Pallas in the upcoming election.
“Following the journey through the wormhole my personal space ship discovered some facts that up until now have not been disclosed to the people of Helionia, but I am now going to disclose them.” Ares Fortuna stopped here for a moment while the members of the press took in his words, and after receiving a suitable reaction to his opening words, he continued with his disclosure.
“The fate of the Heliot space fleet is known to all the people who live on the planets on the other side of the galaxy, and it can easily be verified by anyone wishing to journey through the wormhole. The same Heliot space fleet that was mentioned in the plates recently discovered by my daughter, Trajo. It was snatched up in its coils by a time storm created by the gross negligence of a team of Orionist scientists who were operating a defective time machine, one that rampaged through time and space almost at will. The part of the fleet that managed to survive the time storm crashed onto the surface of that backward planet with just four of the troop ships surviving the very rough emergency landing, the remainder of the fleet was no more than broken hulks and dead crewmen.”
Once more, he stopped for a moment, this time to savour the oncoming burst of surprise that his next words would be sure to bring. He waved down the many reporters who wanted to ask a myriad of questions and continued with his disclosure.
“There will time enough later for questions, I still have the most incredulous piece of information to impart to you. Because they were snatched up in the coils of a time storm, the destruction of our magnificent fleet occurred just eleven years ago.”
Ares Fortuna had decided to transfer ownership of the broken fleet to the modern day Helionians, to bring about the most amount of anger from his people all the easier, and judging from the response that he got from his words he had succeeded beyond his wildest of dreams.
“The four surviving troopships ships were attacked above the planet`s surface while they valiantly defended the troopers from an unprovoked attack by two of the Orionist space cruisers. The four ships burnt up within the planet`s atmosphere killing all of their crewmen, but not before the captains of the troop ships had managed to badly cripple the pride of the Orionist navy. In revenge for this humiliating defeat on their space cruisers, the Orionists exterminated the one thousand troopers who were left behind on the planet`s surface.” All this might have been a gross distortion of the facts, but truth had never counted for much within the doors of the partisan party. Ares Fortuna went from lie to lie.
“I believe that Marot Pallas connived with the arch Orionist mass murderer Tyler Burrows, a man personally responsible for the destruction of the four troop ships and the one thousand troopers. They decided between them to construct a publicity stunt, the kidnapping of Marot Pallas. Fortunately, for Marot Pallas, the four kidnappers died within the dark domain, and so we cannot interrogate them, and I have just heard from the captain of the space cruiser Vengeance that Tyler Burrows and his fellow murderers have also died within the dark domain, running away from a landing party sent from the space cruiser. I now call on the authorities of Helionia to arrest Marot Pallas, and to ask that a search is made for the Orionist starship, and for it to be destroyed when it is found.”
The press were ecstatic, this must be the story of the century, were the newspaper headlines, and all of the front pages were filled with Ares Fortuna and his terrible story, of the death of the Orionist mass murderer and of course of the kidnapping of Marot Pallas and whether it had all been a publicity stunt gone wrong.
Trial by Ordeal Page 39
