by Lee Bond
“And the other ‘funny’ thing?” Sidra asked. The way Herrig’s days and nights went now that Huey was gone and Fenris was pushing for deactivation of the Systemic Shield, his other ‘funny’ thing could very well wind up being one of the grimmest, most terrible utterances ever given a voice.
Herrig swiped UMD’s cost overrun charts from the table. The others were just outside the door. While UltraMegaDynamaTron was not –and probably never would be- in financial jeopardy, it wouldn’t do for anyone to see just how much they were hemorrhaging.
The looks on their smug faces would be too much.
“That, with the advent of Latelian Black Hole Ships, it is twice, if not three times, as difficult to arrange a face-to-face with the principle players in this, our little drama. As it ever was back in the day.”
“It is a busy solar sys …” Sidra stiffened when the door opened and so-called Father Vasily swept into the room. It took all her concentration not to sneer at the man in his flowing robes, and every ounce of willpower to keep her feelings from spilling over into Harmony. Many … if not all of her brothers and sisters adored and cherished the man, but … they had not found someone else to love as she had; Sidra would always appreciate everything Vasily had done for her and her extended family, but the passionate zeal so many of them showed for the man was sickening. It was her extreme hope that the sudden and mystical appearance of Saint Candall –still more hidden than visible deep inside Harmony- would lessen the unsafe idolatry.
Herrig rose to greet the staunch IndoRussian … holy man? Herrig made a mental note to talk to someone –not Sidra- about the form of address that Vasily was most comfortable with as he shook hands with the man, then gestured for the seat set aside for him. “Please, make yourself comfortable. Drinks and refreshments are available if you like. The table is programmable.”
Vasily took his seat and immediately began picking through the menu. “You spare no expense, Chairman DuPont. I see you don’t hold Charbo’s cuisine with the same contempt as others.” He picked out a number of items, though in truth he was only interested in French fries and onion rings.
“Our friend Herrig is nothing if not Avant garde, Father Vasily.” Fenris and his brothers stalked into the room, the dark glamor of their presence settling into the corners of the room. “Is that not right, Sidra?”
“Chairman.” Sidra refused to look at the men who’d given her … her species a second chance at a proper life, either. She had proven to her own satisfaction that none of the original Harmony Soldiers had anything to do with … with what’d happened, but it didn’t matter; they were responsible for something much, much more troubling and if she knew her love, that, too, would be brought up at this ‘casual’ meeting.
Fenris tilted his head to one side. “I’m sorry?”
“To everyone in this solar system,” Sidra waited for Herrig to tense in response to the just-shy-of-scathing tone in her voice and rejoiced when it did not come, “He is Chairman. It is an honorific he has more than earned. And the last I heard, you five are Latelians.”
“Well,” Fenris quipped as he dropped into his seat, “then I shall be called Warmaster Fenris the Magnificent. My brothers may pick whatever names they wish.”
“Solgun.” Solgun took possession of the chair set aside for him, crossing his hands on the table.
“Stride the … Weary.” Stride ignored the look on Fenris’ face as he sat down next to Solgun. He was. He was so very weary of all the crap they were being asked to endure, and this … being forced to come from all corners of the solar system to treat with a man who barely even counted as one?
Wearisome. The utter pinnacle.
Nalanata spun his chair around. “Nalanata the Huntsman.”
Father Vasily clapped his hands, slowly, a droll smirk on his face. The Harmony soldiers, at last accepting that there was a mythology building up around them. Even though they refused to take it seriously, for the spiritually-bereft people of Latelyspace, the powers they possessed were the next best thing to the powers of a God. And with the children of Latelyspace, the so-called God soldiers coming up with their own talents?
Vasily found himself wondering more and more these days if the original ban on religion had more to do with preventing Fenris and his breed from dominating the Latelian civilization merely by walking into a room than protecting them from pointless worship.
In either case, those religious restrictions really hadn’t worked, had they?
“And you, Lokken? Would you be grandiose, like your leader, or Spartan, like your brother Solgun?” Vasily asked, turning his attention to Lokken, easily the most garrulous of all the brothers. The one-time leader of the God Army stuffed a few onion rings in his mouth and chewed, taste buds going into overdrive.
Lokken flashed a wolfish grin. “I’ll … keep my peace for the time being, Father Vasily. You never know when someone might be listening.”
Ute appeared at the door, shouldered himself in, face flushed and an apology on his lips. “Apologies, Chairman. Everyone.” The oldest and truest God soldier in the system sat down at Herrig’s right. “Are those for anyone?”
Father Vasily pushed the French fries across the table towards Ute with a bit more force than necessary. Though he was no longer OverCommander, some small part of pride and ego refused to accept that he’d missed the presence of a full-blown Foursie in his midst for so many years. Attempting to calm his nerves by reminding himself that every OverCommander since the man’s Sigma Death had failed didn’t help.
While there was no open animosity, Ute’s presence at the table rankled. As did, now he thought on it, Sidra’s. More than anything, Father Vasily wanted the conversation at the table to be over with so he could pull the female Foursie off to the side; the things he had to say to the woman were best not uttered in front of Fenris and his brothers, starting with her wildly inappropriate relationship with the Chairman –no irony missed there- and ending with how she treated Fenris and the others.
Fenris’ dark voice broke the casual serenity of the table. “Are we going to do that thing you Latelians do where we all sit around the table for an hour eating food and chit-chatting about pointless things like Indra Sahari’s latest album or the exciting new televised drama about Garth Nickels’ exploits in Trinityspace?”
“I quite like Indra’s new release.” Father Vasily admitted without hesitation. “It’s very catchy.”
Solgun shot Vasily a smoldering look but otherwise said nothing.
“I, er …” Herrig wanted to take his glasses off to clean them but left them where they were. The Chairman knew he was going to spend an hour or more doing nothing but going through all his nervous tics, so it was best if he delayed the inevitable for as long as possible. “I finance ‘To Trinityspace and Beyond’, so, naturally, I am quite pleased with it’s success.”
Ute burst out laughing, not only at Herrig’s positively divine embarrassment, but at the definitively irritated look flashing across Fenris’ face. “That is amazing. I was particularly fond of episode ten, when our hero, Garth Nickels, battles the forces of Evil on Gramma-tet-Seti.”
Sidra smiled. “You like only the parts where the women were forced by Evil to go topless.”
“There is that,” Ute admitted around a mouthful of fries, “there is that. Where on earth did you find a man that looks very nearly identical to Garth, though, I wonder?”
“Digital enhancement.” Herrig admitted without batting an eye. It was a closely held trade secret, but there were two things the ex-banker knew he could count on with utter reliability; one, there were those in the room who’d rather die than betray the secret. Two, the others in the room couldn’t be assed to do anything about it because they imagined themselves far too great to even bother. “Garth left behind some rather impressive holographic technology.”
Father Vasily leaned forward, his heart skipping a beat. “You mean to say you possess the Bosch Device?”
Fenris slammed a hand down on the t
able. He noticed that no one, not even Herrig, flinched. Upsetting. “The ‘Bosch Device’, as you call it, is a rumor. And an impossible one. The circumstances surrounding N’Chalez transforming into a solidified hologram cannot be repeated as it was Kin’kithal specific, and further, you people do not possess access to the sorts of energy required to make that happen any other way.”
He glowered at everyone. “And I brought up those two instances not so we could talk about them but so we could get to the meat on this bone. We have things that …”
“I have things that need dealing with, Fenris, and you are all here because you are the things that need dealing with.” Herrig gave Ute a bit of a headshake and the other man relaxed. No, Ute was present because … Ute was Ute.
Fenris could scarcely believe his ears. Anger bubbled to the surface. “Who do you think you are?”
“Chairman.” Herrig said firmly. “I am Chairman Herrig DuPont.”
Vasily laughed into his onion rings. Chair Crazies. They happened to everyone sooner or later. He ordered a hamburger and hoped the food arrived before Fenris decided that the jumped-up immigrant needed teaching.
“You,” Fenris pointed a finger at the buffoon at the head of the table, “are Chairman because we allow it. We, my brothers and I, and the army at our command, are the true power here in Latelyspace. We perpetuated the fallacy that you had even a passing amount of control only because of Huey, and with that … man … who knows where, it is time you admitted that fact.”
Sidra felt the tremor of anger quiver through Herrig’s flesh, but her love held his calm. They’d been preparing for this moment for some time, since, in fact, they’d realized that Huey was either dead or … absent from the solar system. The only thing they knew for certain was that Huey’s absence from the table had everything to do with a cunning power play by Fenris. Knowing the day was coming, preparing for it, all the effort of considering every angle the dark warlord would use to his advantage had withered the once-portly Chairman to a wisp of his former self, but it was a thing that needed doing.
Herrig looked dolefully at the fries Ute all but guarded with his life. The desire for this to be over and done with was an itch that could only be scratched in one particular direction. He’d lost too much weight and was ill at ease in his own skin because of it.
As he scrutinized the Harmony soldiers’ faces, the Chairman realized they were mistaking anxiety for fear.
Well, Herrig thought to himself, as Garth would say, ‘an edge is an edge is an edge’. Time to use that edge.
The Chairman sighed. “I was looking forward to a nice conversation before we got to this moment, Fenris, though I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. As far as patience and wisdom and circumspect behavior go, hoping that you and yours possess even an ounce of either is to hope that unicorns will arrive to save us all from the Heshii. Both are unlikely in the extreme, and I rather expect that unicorns will spontaneously form before our very eyes first before you even acknowledge patience is a real thing.”
Both Ute and Vasily burst out laughing at the insult, the former spraying masticated French fry across his end of the table, the latter half-choking on a tomato slice.
The ancient Harmony soldiers, however, found no humor in the immaculately polite insult. To a one, their eyes glittered like stars destined to go supernova and the very stillness that seeped from their flesh was warning to all in the room that they had best tread lightly, true predators were now on the hunt.
“Who do you think you are?” Fenris’ voice whispered across the table. It would be so easy, so easy, for him to use but the smallest part of Harmony to undo the life of the balding fat man before him. To reach out with nothing more than the power of his mind and unzip the buffoon’s DNA helix, to blow his life out like a candle.
Encouragement washed outwards from Solgun and Nalanata, whilst Lokken and Stride counseled patience. As always, as ever, his brothers were split cleanly down the middle. Fenris loathed these moments in time. They danced on the edge of a blade that could slice the Universe in half.
Which way would they fall?
“I am Chairman.” Herrig said this simply, as if he were amazed that the question even needed to be asked. “And I am, whether I want it or not, the ultimate authority in this solar system. Not you. Not Huey. Me.”
Herrig felt the sideways looks from both Ute and Vasily. Their quizzical horror that he should be speaking this way to one of the most powerful beings they had –or ever likely would- encounter for the rest of their lives was … humorous.
“Huey!” Fenris’ bark of laughter seemed to shake the walls. “Huey is not even …”
“Yes?” Herrig was almost certain he knew where the dark horse was headed, but wanted to hear it in the man’s own tongue.
“Huey is not even in this solar system.” There. Fenris flashed Herrig a toothy, wolfish grin. No danger in admitting it aloud. They’d gotten what they’d wanted from the Tendreel situation, and with that nosy, too-powerful AI out of the way, they were finally angling the war down avenues they should’ve traveled ages ago.
“So you see,” Lokken grabbed a hamburger from the plate and took a bite, “your protector is gone. We will run this war as a war should be run.”
Nalanata grinned. “We will spare the lives of those with value to the Rising of the Light.”
Stride rolled his shoulders. “The remainder will be smothered by the Falling Dark.”
“Then we will bring down the systemic shield and repeat the exercise with the Army at the door.” Solgun’s voice brimmed with excitement. This close to the end, they each of them had few remaining years. The Harmony burning within them was ever so loud, and they were desperate to reach the end, when Darkness fell and the Light rose.
No one outside their tight-knit brotherhood knew how close their candles were to the end, and it was a secret they would burn worlds to hide. They would be there at the end.
“And from there …” Fenris blinked, then slowly closed his mouth.
Herrig and the almost-traitor Sidra weren’t even paying attention! They had their heads stuck together and were whispering about a potential vacation, of all things.
“Are we boring you?” Fenris growled. “And you, Father, stop laughing at everything.”
“I am sorry.” Father Vasily bowed his head in apology before continuing. “But this is all so very familiar to me. It’s the Chair, you see. It drives you mad, and it’s plain to see that Chairman Herrig has gone off the deep end. He lasted quite long, for a non-Latelian.”
“No.” Ute shook his head, tapping his prote-arm loudly. “No, he’s not mad and it isn’t the office that drives a Chairperson crazy, it’s the First Proteus.”
“And I don’t wear it.” Herrig cleared his throat. “Never have, never will. I don’t really need to, now the HIM is fully active.” The Chairman turned his eyes on the horsemen. They were about as nonplussed as they’d ever been in their tremendously long lives, and it was wonderful to see. “And as for your assertions that I am Chairman in name only, and that you shall be able to do as you want when you want, you are quite mistaken.”
Fenris had had quite enough. He called forth the powers of Harmony and wrapped himself in the aspect of true power. Eyes blazing with unfettered energy, the air all but sizzled with the unmistakable authority of a … of a god capable of shattering entire worlds with a single, casual blow. He grinned when his brothers picked up their mantles as well, and they sat there, burning brightly, cloaked in the impenetrable might of Harmony.
“Whatever sway you think you hold in this pathetic little solar system is nothing beside the might of Harmony.” Fenris’ words lapped at the walls, breaking apart and rolling through the meeting room, kicking up a hissing susurration that could drive lesser men to their knees. “We are Harmony. There is nothing you can do. There is nothing your … your woman will do even though she wishes to, and your staunch friend over there knows better.”
“And I,” Father Vasily, fe
eling left out of the conversation thus far, “don’t even really know why I have been called to this meeting.”
Ute raised a point that everyone in the room seemed to be missing. Under normal circumstances he’d be more than willing to let the whole thing slide as these kinds of power displays often needed to be unveiled just so the pecking order was finally understood, but given the nature of the men involved… “Sa Fenris, if I may point something out?”
“Out with it.” Fenris did not take his eyes off Herrig. “And be quick. I hope it is words of common sense for this jumped up little man.”
“Actually, they’re for you, sa.” Ute dipped his head low. “In your … passion, you may have noticed that the Chairman still remains … undisturbed. That … that he and his girlfriend are feeding each other food.”
“Stricken full of fear, the fearful retreat into things that bring them comfort.” Lokken shrugged. “We’ve seen this before. It is of no import.”
Now that Ute mentioned it, Father Vasily could not help but see the same lack of concern. He shook his head slowly, narrowing his eyes as he did so. “No, no, Lokken, Ute is right. You are all missing something very important, important enough to give Herrig this absurd level of confidence. Not even Alyssa could remain this calm during this kind of confrontation, and she was mad as a hatter. She’d drop an OIP on your face, and she’d certainly be screaming like a howler monkey in the process. Quite possibly even spitting and frothing all over herself, mind you, but calm? Planning seaside vacations? No. Out with it, Chairman. What’s your secret? What’s your secret weapon?”
Herrig gestured, and the table, the walls, the ceilings … every flat surface in the meeting chamber burst –first with light, then with the Latelian Commonwealth’s simple logo- and then with data.
Data that men like Fenris imagined invisible.
Data that put the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a very compromising position.
