Trial by Ordeal

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  It was eight o`clock and Tyler was already at the television studios. He and his friends were dressed in smart grey suits provided by Marot Pallas, and made up quickly by his tailor to fit them all as near perfectly as time would allow. Marot had thought it better that they appear in the smart suits rather than the clothes that they had arrived in, the clothes of an Orion warrior. Their normal attire consisted of a coat which was made from the hide of a deer, and then softened by the women of the village until it was very comfortable to wear and would stand up to their lifestyle, and the trousers and shirt were made of cotton which was imported from Earth. While the clothes were suitable for a planet like Orion, they stood out here on Helionia, and Marot Pallas thought that the Helionians would pre-judge them if they appeared in their normal attire.

  The President of the television company met Tyler at the doors of the large studio complex, he then invited Tyler into his office so that he could discuss aspects of tonight`s debate. Tyler noticed that his friends were waylaid, and violence was just about to break out when Tyler catching Appolon`s eye shook his head and grinned at his friend. As soon as Tyler was inside of the president`s office, he was introduced to another man.

  “This gentleman here is the company doctor, and it is felt by all concerned that as a stranger to our planet that we should perhaps administer a truth drug to you, this is to ensure that the people of Helionia are not in any way misled by what you have to say tonight during the televised debate.” The slimy individual before Tyler expected him to burst out in anger, but what Tyler said to him left him speechless.

  “Of course, but so that the population know that I have actually taken the drug, I insist on it being done at the start of the debate, and in front of the television cameras. The fact that I have taken the drug while my opponent has obviously not should even up the debate a bit, and might even give me an edge.” Tyler said and then smiled at the slimy President. He then left the plush office to re-join the others and fill them in to what had happened within the closed doors of the President`s office.

  It was soon nine o`clock and now Tyler was seated behind a long curved table. He sat at one end, Ares Fortuna sat at the other end, and a television presenter sat between them to introduce the debate, and to see fair play during the debate. There was no sign of the threatened truth drug as Ares Fortuna had agreed with Tyler, it would only help his opponent, if he didn`t intend to lie anyway.

  “Good evening everyone out there in Helionia, I am Raoul Manos and I will be the chairman for tonight`s television debate between General Ares Fortuna, leader of the partisan party and the man from the other side of the galaxy, Tyler Burrows.”

  Cheers had arisen when Fortuna had been introduced, but mostly silence mixed with some name calling had greeted Tyler`s introduction.

  “Now Ares Fortuna, as you essentially are the home team, maybe you would like to kick off the debate with an opening salvo.”

  “Of course Raoul, but I would first like to know how our honoured guest is managing to stay in the same home as the woman who supposedly kidnapped his family and endangered their lives, just what sort of man is he who can do such a thing?” Fortuna demanded to know.

  The audience also wanted to know the answer to this question, and Tyler was grateful to Captain Lysenko for asking the same question of him that morning, did he perhaps know that this question would be amongst those asked of him.

  Tyler looked across at Ares Fortuna, and smiled at him, something that caused Fortuna much discomfort, for he saw the possibility that the man opposite him had anticipated the question.

  “I am happy to answer your question Ares.” Tyler said using his opponent`s first name in a manner that made him seem to be a friend of the powerful general, and this further worried Fortuna.

  “You are quite right to ask the question; in fact had you not asked it, I would have wondered if anyone on this planet cared about what happened to my family, apart from Marot Pallas that is.” Tyler said to an amazed Fortuna.

  “But Ares, please answer these two questions of mine first. In the short time that I have known your people, I have come to realise that Helionia believes whole-heartedly in the spirit world. One that exists alongside with the normal world of the living, do you also believe in this spirit world?” Tyler asked Fortuna who was beginning to worry that his opponent was not the barbarian he thought he was.

  “Yes of course I do Orionist; it is not only what has brought centuries of peace to Helionia but I myself have witnessed it many times.” Ares Fortuna said just as proudly as Captain Lysenko had proclaimed it earlier that day, but Fortuna`s voice now had a hint of worry added to his normal confident tones.

  “Then tell me what is most important to you, the peace of the galaxy or imprisoning a young woman.” Tyler secretly thought that Fortuna was not interested in either of these things, however, he then continued. “Ares before you answer that question let me finish my question with a statement. We are talking about a young woman who went through into the dark domain without any control whatsoever over her actions, or her own mind. It was only due to my friend Tryon.” Tyler stopped for a moment and looked at those seated in the front row of the audience and pointed out his brave friend to the rest of the audience.

  “Tryon please stand up so that everyone can get a good view of you.” Tryon a little embarrassed, did as his friend asked and stood up and turned to face the rest of the audience seated behind him and gave a small bow. The audience all respected the mystics of their world, and Tryon was in turn offered their respect as the audience talked quietly about this strange turn of events. Tyler now continued his answer to Fortuna`s question.

  “Tryon has trained as a mystic on Orion, which is one of the reasons that I brought him with me to Helionia. Not long ago he journeyed to the spirit world along with Patina Pallas, a woman who as I said was not in control of her own mind. In the spirit world Tryon defeated the evil mystic who had controlled everything that Patina Pallas said or did, and that included the kidnapping of my family.” Tyler’s voice now had an edge of anger to it but he managed to keep this under control as he continued.

  “Following his victory over this evil mystic, Tryon was then able to bring back to her husband a young innocent woman. One who is now fully in control of all of her actions, and who spends much of her time praying to the gods to forgive her for the foul deeds she committed while under the control of an evil old crone. You only have to spend a few minutes with her to see how much the experience has changed her. I for one forgive her, for I know that Patina Pallas did not commit these crimes. It was the evil mystic, and of course the powerful citizen who was behind her.” Tyler`s eyes found those of Ares Fortuna and held them fixed until Fortuna was forced to look away. There was no confusion as to whom Tyler was speaking about, none whatsoever.

  Silence followed Tyler`s last words, a silence finally broken by the applause of many of the studio audience, never had Tyler been so amazed as now, the people of Helionia had begun to take to him, just as so many different people had taken to him before.

  Marot Pallas looked on stunned. Tyler Burrows was wrong about his abilities as a speaker, true he may not have embroidered his speech with many important sounding words, but he was most certainly a very able public speaker; in fact, he was more than capable of getting the better of many of the members within the government of Helionia. Marot looked across at Ares Fortuna and saw a very angry man who knew that he had lost the opening round by a mile to this alien, one who had proved his friendship to Marot more than once.

  Trajo Fortuna was also in the audience, and she too looked at Tyler in amazement, but surely, her father would prove this man to be a charlatan, a mass murderer of the first order and before this debate was over.

  Prion who sat beside her was feeling a lot better though, for since Marot Pallas had been found safe by the Orionists, his conscience had quietened down, and he still had Trajo, even if she had become more obsessed with the partisan party, a
nd still thought more of her father than him.

  Captain Lysenko was standing in the wings of the television studio smiling quietly as he heard Tyler speaking. An undercover agent of his had photographed the speech that Ares Fortuna was to make that evening, and while Lysenko had wanted an answer to his question, he had decided to give Tyler a little practice in answering the open salvo, earlier that morning. For had Tyler, failed to give him a satisfactory answer he would indeed have carried out his threat and imprisoned the alien.

  Meanwhile Tryon, who had sat down when Tyler had resumed speaker was being congratulated for his part in the proceedings by his three jubilant friends, much to his embarrassment.

  “Our visitor from far away seems to have answered your first question to the satisfaction of our studio audience General Fortuna, would you now like to proceed on with the debate.” Raoul Manos said politely to an angry Fortuna.

  “I am quite ready thank you Raoul. As I said in my press conference, my personal starship discovered some interesting facts that as up until then had not been disclosed to the people of Helionia. I am now going to repeat those facts to the Orionist, and ask him to explain them also to the satisfaction of not only the studio audience but the whole of Helionia as well.” Ares Fortuna said through gritted teeth.

  “It is common fact on the planets at the other side of the galaxy that the Heliot space fleet mentioned in the plates discovered by my daughter Trajo, was snatched up in the coils of a time storm. A storm created because of the gross negligence of a team of Orionist scientists, who were operating a defective time machine that rampaged through time and space almost at will. Their leader is Richard Jameson, who is an irresponsible fool who should be arrested. The part of our fleet that managed to survive the time storm crashed onto the surface of that backward planet Orion, with just four of the troopships surviving the landing, the remainder of the fleet was no more than broken hulks and dead crewmembers. This destruction of our fleet occurred just eleven years ago.” Ares Fortuna again decided to transfer ownership of the broken fleet to the modern day Helionians to rekindle the anger of his people against the mass murderer Tyler Burrows, and judging from the response that he got from his words he had partially succeeded.

  “The four surviving troopships were attacked above the planet`s surface while they defended the Heliot 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 troopship captains had managed to badly cripple the pride of the Orionist navy. In revenge for this humiliating defeat on their space cruisers the Orionist Tyler Burrows, a mass murderer, a pirate and a brigand exterminated the one thousand troopers who were left behind on the planet`s surface.” All this was once again a gross distortion of the facts, but truth had never counted for much with people like Ares Fortuna who travelled from lie to lie.

  “Marot Pallas connived with the Orionist mass murderer Tyler Burrows, a man personally responsible for the destruction of the four troopships and the one thousand troopers, 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. I now call on the authorities of Helionia to arrest Marot Pallas and the five Orionists before us.”

  “Well General Fortuna, you raised more than one point there but perhaps our visitor would like to answer them all.” Raoul then turned directly towards Tyler. “Should you miss any of the points, I have them all here so don`t worry too much, I will remind you.”

  “I`m sure you will Raoul.” Tyler said smiling at him. Tyler hadn`t bothered to interrupt the flow of Fortuna`s speech, he simply waited his chance to reply to the ridiculous but very dangerous charges being levelled against him here before the Helionian nation. Ares Fortuna though meant to disrupt the Orionist murderer`s reply to the many accusations and lies said by Fortuna in his speech, and whenever he could get the chance.

  “As you said Raoul it was a mouthful so I will attempt to remember all of the fairy stories told by Ares and inform the audience of the true facts behind the fantasies prefabricated by my esteemed opponent.”

  This put down to Fortuna`s speech got a few laughs from the audience who saw before them the beginnings of a lively debate. Ares Fortuna however didn`t appreciate Tyler`s remarks, and he stood up in rage and raised his fist to Tyler.

  “I have told only the truth today and if you ever call me a liar again I shall demand satisfaction.” Ares Fortuna raged.

  Whenever Fortuna had tried this bluff before his opponents had always backed off, but this time his opponent was Tyler Burrows, the chosen one of the gods, or so Tryon and Caroline often told him, or anyone else who would listen.

  “If Ares is talking about a duel Raoul, does that mean that I get to choose the weapons of combat?” Tyler asked in a very unconcerned voice.

  “Yes Tyler it does.” Raoul replied using Tyler`s Christian name, for at this moment in time he was completely thrown. Duels were still legal on Helionia, and were the only way you could kill someone without the fear of the departed spirit coming back to haunt you for the rest of your life.

  “Good then Raoul, then I will ponder on which weapon I would like to choose while I proceed with my answers to Ares` stories.” Tyler replied.

  “If you wouldn`t mind Tyler.” Raoul had decided to continue using Tyler`s given name now. “General, if you would please be seated. Ares Fortuna glared across at Raoul before sitting back down rather noisily in his chair.

  “Right then here we go. Point one, the Heliot fleet was only scooped up by the time storm as it was in a position where it ought not to have been. That is it had declared war on a planet for no other reason than it wanted to rape and pillage it. Those aren`t the exact words written on the four plates found by the famous archaeologist Trajo Fortuna, but reading between the lines that is what Ares Divilio meant to say. If they hadn`t decided to invade the Planet of the Light they would not have been touched by the time storm.

  Point two, the time machine disaster was caused by space pirates, a group of people much like the Heliots that I met up with eleven years ago, in that they took what they wanted, and from whoever they liked.”

  “That is a total fabrication Orionist, as I said very clearly in my speech. The time storm was caused by the incompetence of Richard Jameson.” Ares Fortuna said loudly, once more getting to his feet and glaring across the studio at Tyler, who simply smiled politely across at Ares Fortuna, enraging him even more.

  “Richard Jameson was a great scientist and a family man who moved to Orion, to the very edge of the galaxy, to escape the Ares Fortuna`s of Earth, unfortunately for him he didn`t move far enough away. He was killed by the space pirates when they attacked the two disabled space cruisers from Earth, following their battle against the ships from Heliot.” Tyler replied to Fortuna`s lies in a firm but quiet voice.

  “But if I may now continue with my reply to your questions Ares. Point three, the Heliot general pushed his men far too hard to prepare the four remaining troop ships for a battle that only he sought. They were fitting the four troop ships with Phasers and stronger defence shields so that they could go up against the two Earth ships in orbit above the planet, who at the time didn`t even know of the Heliot starships existence. I know this as I watched much of their preparations from a ridge overlooking the crash site, and I believe that mistakes were made because the men were pushed so hard by their general that they became over tired, and therefore prone to make a mistake, that in normal times they would never have done. This was to ensure that they would be ready in time for a battle sort by their general. He had them take off as soon as he became aware that the two space cruisers from Earth were about to search for him, which was just after word got through to the township on Orion telling the local leaders of the Heliots intentions as regards the people of Orion. He was going to enslave them, the generals own words to a local priest. If he had not already started op
erations against the local population, but had taken things slower and treated the locals with respect, he would be here today, although that probably would have been most unfortunate for the people of this world. The general of the Heliot fleet, killed an old man for answering a question too slowly, his troopers killed twelve other natives who attempted to flee rather than be taken prisoner, he threatened the life of a local priest and his young family to get his way, which is exactly what happened to me and my family here on Helionia.” Ares Fortuna simply glared his hatred at Tyler while he endeavoured to find a way to discredit him.

  “Point four, the space pirates murdered the one thousand Heliot troopers, it was to prevent them from taking control of the planet and finding the time machine, which the pirates were attempting to steal. It was sitting in the hold of their cargo vessel, which unfortunately for the pirates was still sitting on Orion, for their cargo vessel had broken down.

  Point five, the only point that I got personally involved in, was when the remnants of the Heliot army were about to invade the township. I persuaded them to attempt to capture the broken down cargo vessel, which was almost repaired by then, and when it was finally repaired to go up to the waiting starship and to capture it as well. I admit that rather than have the survivors of the resulting battle for the control of a space cruiser, live to continue their evil ways, I had already decided to destroy it along with it the two bands of battling space pirates. I also destroyed the time machine to stop the leaders of Earth, or anyone else, from getting their hands on it, for they couldn`t be trusted with such a powerful machine at this time in our peoples development, or any other people that I have so far come across.” Tyler declared boldly.

  “So you admit that you destroyed the last of the Heliots.” Fortuna said triumphantly.

  “Yes I did, for it was this particular squad who had killed the twelve fleeing natives, I gave them a swift dose of the kind of justice that they themselves dealt out, and I would do it again in a second, Ares.” Tyler said to an angry general who was finding it harder and harder to keep control.

  “Point six, I am only here because Patina Pallas asked for my help in rescuing her husband Marot Pallas, I initially refused her because I was led to believe that it was a suicide mission. I was forced to come when my family was kidnapped only to find that the rescue mission was a relatively simple one, or would have been if the starship Dagger, owned by you Ares, hadn`t prevented it the first time.” Outbursts of astonishment followed this revelation but Tyler carried on speaking.

  “It tried again later, but was deterred from doing so by the captain of the Orionist starship the Orion Defender. We know that you were on board the Dagger that time, as a police officer saw you and the evil mystic, the same mystic that had made Patina Pallas kidnap my family, boarding the starship Dagger just prior to its departure. We know that you were both still aboard as you were not seen to leave the ship prior to its departure.” This was true for the police agent was unconscious at the time, but Fortuna could hardly argue the point, even so, he tried to.

  “If the police were under the delusion that my starship, the Dagger, delayed the rescue of my political opponent Marot Pallas, then why did they only keep a watch on the ship, why did they not question the captain regarding these supposed dubious activities of his?” Ares Fortuna demanded to know.

  “Because you are a very powerful man Ares, and the police officer concerned would have only had the unsubstantiated word of an alien starship captain, so he probably decided to sit, wait and watch.” Tyler replied quietly. His constant use of Fortuna`s given name was infuriating the general and soon he would explode.

  “But how do we know this is so, where is this policeman who sat, waited and watched?” Fortuna screamed out to a stunned audience who looked at the irate general in amazement now.

  “I am here General Fortuna, and what Tyler Burrows says is quite true, we did sit, wait and watch to see what the captain of the Dagger would do next, and we all soon found out didn`t we, much to our amazement?” Captain Lysenko said bending the truth a little as he moved out onto the stage from the wings to answer Fortuna`s summons, a general who had now reached boiling point.

  Tyler now pressed on aggressively with his defence of himself, his friends and Marot Pallas, by verbally attacking his opponent. “The presence of you Ares Fortuna aboard one of three space cruisers almost stopped it the second time, but you were too slow in returning to the newly discovered portal on the moon in the Arturo planetary system, a portal once again discovered by your famous daughter, Trajo Fortuna. My family, and Marot Pallas and his wife were able to escape the dark domain, before you arrived. However, it took me and my three friends a bit longer to do so because of your direct interference.” Tyler now prepared to sum up his defence.

  “To sum up, the leaders of the Heliots of fifty thousand years ago were not very nice people, they took what they wanted and they died because they tried to do it once too often. The many people who tried to steal the time machine were very much like them, they were powerful and corrupt, their only goal was to achieve more power, and I see such a man here in Ares Fortuna. I hereby call on the authorities of this planet to investigate his activities regarding the kidnapping of Marot Pallas, and his continued attempts to disrupt the rescue attempt led by Aswan Trajan and myself.

  The studio audience were taken by surprise by Tyler`s final words, excitement rippled across the television studio. Many of them were also swayed by the replies made by Tyler, to the verbal attacks made on him by Ares Fortuna. These people now stood up and applauded Tyler, the others simply sat and looked very dejected as Ares Fortuna, their hero, stormed out of the television studio to return to his home. With him was his daughter Trajo.