“So why are they allowed here?” asked the empress in disgust. “Wait, I know.”
“Yes,” said Landau, “money. There are those whose livelihoods and fortunes are tied to these crops and much farming is subsidized to fill this need. Also, their populations are huge. They do not manage the size of their families or cities as we do.”
“Even the air here stinks!” said Coahoma.
“Actually, the air quality in most places in America and Europe is very good compared to some places on this planet,” said Landau. “The air in Mexico City or Manila would kill a Bellasarian.”
“How is this air affecting the people on Bain?” asked the empress, as an aide continued to apply dye to her skin.
“They have constructed air filters and have even request permission to raise the defensive shield around their Island. Administrator Hong is most anxious about the health of the populous.”
“Is the air quality of this world really so bad as to be harmful from long term exposure?” asked the empress, now concerned.
“No, Highness,” said Landau. “Fortunately, things have not reached that point on this planet yet and many are determined that it never does. In this country there are even mandatory emission testing for vehicles and other measures to keep the pollutants to a minimum. With our help, things will get even better here.”
“Then no,” said Beral III. “The shield would be a danger to their ships and planes that might crash into it because they couldn’t see it or register it on their radar.” Landau bowed. “Well!” said the empress standing up. “How do I look?”
Coahoma giggled, “Mother, you look just like a red woman!”
“Except for her eyes,” said the prime minister’s wife.
“No,” said Coahoma, “many of our people have such shaped eyes. This was true even before our contact with the Hangookee and Nippongee tribes.”
“I see,” chuckled the empress, amused by the Indianized names for the Koreans (Han-gook) and Japanese (Nipponjin). It also explained the cultural background of Princess Jayna’s father and one of her people’s cultural influences. Aside from her eyes, her sword had been clearly of Japanese influence, but designed to be wielded in one hand from horseback while the warrior carried a shield on the other arm.
“Be that as it may,” said Pam Landau, “Princess Coahoma does not have such shaped eyes, nor are they green or feline. Aside from your body and hair, you don’t look anything like Princess Coahoma, Highness.”
“Not to worry,” said the empress. She motioned to a servant who quickly produced a mask. “The Princess Coahoma will suddenly develop a severe skin reaction and, mortified by her condition, wear this mask to hide it. The shaded narrow openings will hide the shape of my eyes and colored contacts will take care of the color problem. Between telepathy, teleportation and the mask, no will suspect when one of us is not who she seems to be.”
“But, Highness,” said an aide, “you don’t sound like Princess Coahoma. They will be certain to mark your voice and accent immediately.”
“The mask has a built in modifier,” said the empress with a giggle. She began speaking Americ and the voice that came out was Coahoma’s. “It will imitate Coahoma’s voice exactly. Besides, few will try to talk to Coahoma. She doesn’t speak Old-Americ English and I doubt anyone here speaks the Red-Stone’s language. You and your husband will be doing all the talking. I’ll be in report with you telepathically so these barbarians will never know the questions you’re asking will sometimes be from me or that I’ll understand their responses. Naturally, I’ll be reading some of their minds as well. It’ll be fine.”
Coahoma was speechless. “Mother, I have heard since I was very little that people in the east were very skilled and wise, but the things I’ve seen since the war and coming to Illyria have been beyond my dreams! You…How did you steal my voice?”
The empress chuckled and said, “Your voice patterns and accent were recorded, honey. There’s nothing magical involved here. Don’t worry; we’ll have your people up to speed in no time, along with the other tribes beyond the mountains.”
“Be that as it may,” said Landau, “I’m still skeptical. All they need do to communicate to Princess Coahoma is use a telepath and then you’d be found out.”
“That is true,” said the empress, “but they won’t. The humans here are stupid and paranoid. Even President Chambers, who I like, brought not one single mutant with her to Bellasaria for fear of them being turned by us. They won’t use other mutants to deal with us, I promise.
******
The visit of the Bellasarian Prime Minister was for a week. In this time, he and his party were shown many places of interest in the city and U.S. Naturally, when traveling by plane; it was always Coahoma with the party. However, once landed and settled; it was a simple matter for the party’s location to be fixed and Beral III teleported over at some point during the day. On the third day of the trip the president, feeling that poor Coahoma was being left out, quite surprisingly found people who could (hopefully) talk to her. Much to the surprise of many, Coahoma’s few Native American words heard on TV and name had been immediately recognized by many of the Muskogean speaking Indian Community as Choctaw (most of it anyway) and immediately they offered their assistance for her benefit. The president happily agreed. The empress was unpleasantly surprised, but hid it well. Beral quickly excused herself under the pretense of needing to check her face. She claimed that the reaction was almost gone when she awoke that morning, and she would like to speak to her long separated kin without the mask. But she was self-conscious and had to be sure she would not offend them with the rash. It was a lame excuse that made some folks suspicious. The only thing that had saved her was that Coahoma, who was in mental sync with her from their chambers, was telepathically helping her with her words. She exited and hurried to their room and quickly changed places with her daughter-in-law.
Coahoma returned and happily explained fluently in her language that the reaction was completely gone. If there was any skepticism of her it was immediately dismissed once she began conversing with the interpreter. Any misspoken words were dismissed as nervousness about her appearance and meeting her long estranged kin.
The Choctaw interpreters were able to communicate reasonably well with Coahoma, but they realized early on that this language was not pure Choctaw or even Muskogee. Although mostly Muskogean, there was Iroquoian and Algonquin words in the mix as well. They even detected one or two words that were clearly Spanish. Others were totally unfamiliar.
Out of curiosity, the next day the Choctaw interpreters brought a voice recorder and began recording their conversations with the Bellasarian girl to discover what words from other languages had become part of her Language. To their shock, an expert on languages discovered that some words were definitely of African origin and others seemed to be of European and Asian. For instance, although the word for war club in Coahoma’s language was the same as in Choctaw. The word for an iron war club was “Tetsubo”. Tetsubo is the Japanese word for war club.
The end conclusion of the linguists was that 80% of Coahoma’s language was Muskogean, (mostly Choctaw and Creek). 15% was from other Native American peoples and various non-Indian sources. And the remaining 5% were new words unique to her people, basically the hybrid mixture of all of the above.
Because of the interpreters, Beral III could not be present personally at many of the functions, but she still was able to learn a lot through her daughter-in-law/body double. The Earth people had potential. They were coming around in certain areas, but were still a selfish and greedy lot. Their attitudes towards mutants still needed much to be improved as well. However, positive change was noted from when Bellasaris had to deal with them. Her daughter-in-law was seeing this as well.
Coahoma was genuinely surprised that the Amerindians of this land were so interested in her people and the others who left. The reason mutan
t Native Americans fled Earth and went to Bellasaria in the first place was because the human Indians had become just as hostile to mutants as the other humans. Beral was surprised by this change in attitude as well. On the whole the trip was informative.
The last day of the trip Coahoma’s face broke out again and she once again put on the mask. As the president and her family was bidding goodbye to Prime Minister Landau and his wife she expressed her disappointment that Beral III couldn’t have seen the beauty of her nation and its people. Honestly, the Bellasarians had indeed seen much to admire in both the land and people of America. Before entering the transporter that would take them directly to Bain and from there Bellasaria, Coahoma thanked the president and her husband personally for their hospitality.
“Your country is very beautiful, indeed,” said Coahoma in perfect English tinged with the Bellasarian accent. “I’m sure the empress would have been favorably impressed if she were here.”
The president was stunned. She recognized that voice, but this was impossible. Then she noticed that this mask was not the same mask that Coahoma was wearing before. It was very similar, but the eyes were now quite visible, whereas the previous mask had smaller tinted openings that were barely slits.
Unlike Coahoma’s eyes, which were brown, the eyes behind the new mask were green, feline and bore the epicanthic fold. The president turned white. She had seen those eyes up close before. Realization was setting in. It all made sense now. Of her family, why would the empress send the Indian, who was a relatively new addition to her house, and not one of her blood daughters? It was simple. Both women had the same body type. Only Coahoma had the exact height and proportions that would allow Beral III to periodically trade places with her without anyone noticing. A quick inspection also revealed signs of fading skin coloring. These parts of her exposed flesh were very close to white where the dye had begun to fade. And the mask! Obviously there never was a skin condition. Beverly couldn’t believe she and the others actually bought that. The president could only stand there speechless. If she alerted anyone to the fact that Empress Beral III had been among them on Earth all this time she would look like a complete fool…or worse. She looked at her husband. Yes, Barry knew too, and was equally wise enough to keep his mouth shut.
Beral winked at President Chambers, turned and entered the portal. The prime minister and the rest followed, now in the clear role of subordinates, and they were gone.
******
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
PRESIDENT CHAMBERS’S FRUSTRATION, THE PRIEST
“She was here the whole time,” said President Chambers, who had immediately called a private meeting of her staff afterwards.
One of the men laughed. “To think that there are two women shaped like that out there.”
“An opportunity like this missed and all you can think about is big tits and asses!” snapped the president.
“I was just trying to lighten the mood a little, Beverly, that’s all,” said the man.
“The president is right,” said another man. “We could have gotten our hands on the Bellasarian Empress and forced them to finally give us the secret of how they took over our weapons systems and the teleportation technology. I was ten when those freaks appeared out of thin air and began to turn Miami into a slaughter house. I was there. I saw it!” Surprisingly, many at the table agreed with this statement.
“By missed opportunity, Mr. Hartman,” said President Chambers, “I meant something more positive. Like personally showing her the best we had to offer her people on a much more personal level and convincing her that we had grown up! I actually was hurt by her distrust. I felt that she had insulted our honor by this dirty little deception. I’m ashamed to say that it has now been proven justified!”
The people in the room looked at one another. “Lady President,” said a man, “I’m certain that Fred didn’t…That is…”
“I’ve changed my mind about this incident,” said President Chambers. “Under the circumstances, we still made a very good impression and the empress was pleased. Of course, not one word of Empress Beral III being here must leave this room. It could and probably would undermine everything if the American people and world at large learned of it. The things you fear, but want may or may not come into our possession one day, Fred. Personally, I think we’re better off without them. But much more humane and helpful things are coming in now. We’ll leave it at that and be content for now. This meeting is adjourned!”
******
It was a few months later and again the president was sitting down with her staff and various other experts on Bellasarian and mutant culture.
“This huge landmass is the Illyrian Continent,” said the man pointing at the large screen. “Most of it, as you can see, is Terra-unknown, unexplored. Here is the area of land that is known and settled. This large area is the Bellasarian Empire. As President Chambers herself wrote, this is more of a loose federation of very independent nations rather than an empire as we would normally know it. Or at least it wasn’t.”
“Explain,” said a woman.
“The great summit and the reopening of relation with Bellasaria and Earth had the unanticipated effect of bringing together the various states and tribes. Ironically, it also indirectly caused a war that finally allowed the empire to bring a powerful renegade nation to heel and into the imperial fold.”
“It seems like we did the empress a favor,” said one man.
“Or she manipulated us yet again,” said another. The president, who knew it was the last, shook her head and instructed the standing man to continue.
“This very large region here is Illyria. It was known as the Illyrian Empire when we were dealing with Queen Bellasaris, but that was before the other nations made formal alliances with them and joined into the federation of the Bellasarian Empire.
This nation here in the north is Melmoria. As you can see, it is surrounded on three sides by Illyria, but enjoys access to the sea on its northern coast. To the far south of Illyria is the country of Tabon and further south is Akkadia. As we all know, Akkadia is the nation that was founded by American mutants that broke from the renegade General Bishop’s invasion forces during his mad attempt at conquest.”
“What are these little countries all around here, Paul?” asked Frederick Hartman.
“There are many smaller nations in the empire, Fred. Akonia, Bassa and so on,” said the man, pointing at the smaller southern and northern nations. Right now all we need to concentrate on is the major players.”
“And that huge nation there?” said someone.
Paul nodded and then chuckled. “That is the Great Forest Kingdom. Yes, it is impressive in size. It stretches from here bordering these nations and northern Illyria, all the way to the south, here. But it has almost no impressive features at all besides its forests and unspoiled beauty. Its borders are very loose and quite frankly most of it is vast seemingly unpopulated forest. And these range from rainforests in the south to more temperate forests of oak and pine to the north. Beyond the Great Forest Kingdom, the only nations we know a lot about are Mavieland and Barratia to the northwest.
“Beyond them we now know of fierce nations founded by Native Americans and other mutant peoples from various places on Earth. If the Borrenqi are any example, these people are beginning to become quite culturally and racially mixed.”
The people looked at the map. The nations seemed huge compared to the overall continent and most of that wasn’t even shown because it was still unmapped.
“I know,” said Paul. “These are some big nations, but most of these lands are vast and undeveloped. Within Illyria alone there are many independent or semi-independent tribes that the empress is determined to bring into the fold more firmly. It is the same with the other nations. These are a freedom loving people who pretty much like to go their own way. War and raiding is common, but as the president pointed out in her
reports, it usually isn’t very destructive or brutal. Actually, it’s like a controlled pastime with living captives as the prizes, sport. Basic shared cultural values hold the people as a whole together, and the rulers don’t interfere to a great degree in their affairs. Most of the peoples of many of these lands live quite simply. A lot even roam the great wilderness as four legged beasts. This is yet another reason why the natives are so oppose to harvesting the forests, mining and building dams. They like, and in many cases, need the land the way it is.”
“I still can’t understand why these people are just letting all the natural resources and potential for this world go to waste,” said Hartman. “A few savages and animals are in the way? So what! They should just put those people on reservations and start developing that land.”
“Do you know that President Teddy Roosevelt, when visiting South America, said the same thing you did. All of those jungle Indians should be put on reservations and all the trees cut down for the advancement of progress. He had no eye for the natural beauty of the Amazon Rain Forest or its people and animals that depended on it. He saw the vast expanses of trees as useless greenery covering land that could be developed for farms and factories! Today we know that 50% of this planet’s oxygen is produced by those so-called, ‘Useless Trees’ in the Amazon. Think that cutting them all down would have been such a good idea now?”
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” Hartman lied. “All I’m saying is that these people don’t seem to understand the commercial value of-”
“These people, on a whole, have different values than we do,” said Chambers. “I was there, not you. Some of you people were there too, right?” several aides and advisors nodded. “Did you people notice the difference in the air, food and water?” They all looked at each other and then nodded.
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