by Steve M.
“You killed every human on a planet to secure department funding from the Terros Corporation for the next million revs. And you don’t see anything wrong with that. Do you remember Earth 5, the Austrian? You made him look like an amateur.”
“They were primitives. I won’t have you put them on the same level as the civilized, because they aren’t.”
“And therein lies the most significant cause of my lack of confidence in your abilities.”
“So what is the man that saved the universe going to do about it?” asked Longley angrily.
“As long as you never repeat Earth 4, I don’t see that it is my responsibility to ask for your dismissal. But if you ever attempt anything like that again, I will be in Dean Midge’s office faster than you can say ‘The Last Amalekite.’”
“I’ve always suspected you wanted my job,” said Longley.
“This may surprise you, but I don’t. I didn’t even want to be a hero. I just wanted to become an educator and set sail in the galaxy, a few years here, a few there, until I found a good place to stay for a long time.”
“Well, I’ve wanted this job ever since I got my Ph.D. And now that I’ve got it, I’ll tell you one thing: I won’t give it up without a fight.”
Making learning the center of human existence and subsequently the university the local center had many profound effects. Significant among them was the effect on and of the Management Department. Countless old management theories had been discredited. Management ideas had finally stabilized from the former fashion parade of management ideas, many of them countervailing others. New techniques stressed self-management and distribution of tools to assist in this effort.
*****
Dean Midge was wishing that she were back in a self-managed team working on the Probability Calculator. Just her and a group of mathematicians, bringing her ideas to formulas and back-testing them. Instead she was sitting at her desk with Professor Trill across from her.
“Earth 4, don’t forget what they did on Earth 4,” said Trill. Trill ignored the glass on Dean Midge’s desk that indicated that she had two urgent messages.
He knew that they were news that Professor Klept had escaped from capture on Thetus 9. Trill sighed when he remembered telling Klept that he would be safest on a cruiser traveling. But the physicist wouldn’t listen. Trill had him on a cruiser now, under protection.
“That was a mistake, and I had a long discussion with him after. I don’t think he will repeat it.”
“I would think that it would be significant enough to warrant a special investigator from the Chancellor’s office,” said Trill.
“Let’s be reasonable,” she replied. “After all, they were a Primitive 2 planet. Not like they were going to contribute anytime soon.”
“Yes, that’s important to consider,” replied Trill. He was executing his hard thrust, soft solution.
“Still,” Trill began, “at the time I was so angry with him that I read the regulations on a Chancellor’s investigation. In there I found that any Educator at the Department Head level or above can request an investigation and all requests for investigation are public and must be accompanied by a detailed ‘statement of knowns,’”
“Yes. I reread the regulations in preparation for this meeting and found the same,” replied Midge. “Are you planning to submit a statement of knowns?”
“I am considering it,” replied Trill. “But more importantly, I’ve been working on a new idea of what I call ‘micro-nudges’ for planets in quarantine. These are tiny interventions without direct contact that will permit them to advance at a faster pace. We’ve been writing a book of philosophy to be placed in the hands of several of the notable humans in the quarantine planets. It gives them a pathway forward.”
“Let me talk to Longley. And I also want to talk to Wingut. He’s a good egg.”
Trill remembered his surprise when he saw Wingut on his feet applauding him at the Educator of the 500 Rev Cycle Awards Ceremony.
“Wingut is a smart man,” said Trill.
“And a good dancer,” replied Midge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“I think we should look and see if we can steal Tal’s transport device,” said Koven when they met, shielded at the top of the steps to the temple. Rusa took Koven’s hand and they went inside.
“You want to see her naked again, don’t you?” Rusa replied.
“Yes,” Koven admitted.
“OK. Let’s go look for it,” replied Rusa. “Did you know that there is a new role-playing app I can download? I didn’t because you are a historian. Logically, role-playing is a deceit, so you would be prohibited. Is my understanding correct?”
“Yes,” replied Koven.
They entered Tal’s room while the guards were investigating a noise they made down the hall, then walked past them and opened the doors. Tal was not in the pool, but she was naked. She was sitting on top of a man years younger than her, grinding down on him as she thrusts her hips forward and backwards.
“Not much longer now,” she said with a desperate tone.
“May I suck on your breasts, Mother Tal?” asked the man with the long brown hair and matte complexion.
“Yes. Soft at first then hard when you feel me clenching.”
Koven saw the personal transport device sitting on the table next to the bed. He moved carefully over to it. A tix after he picked it up, it became part of the cloaking field and disappeared. He held Rusa’s hand by his other hand.
“Let’s go,” he whispered to the sound of Tal’s loud moans that were getting louder.
As they turned to leave, Koven bumped into the equally invisible Rusa, despite the fact that the point of holding hands was to prevent things like that. The PTD slipped from his hand and fell to the floor. As soon as he was no longer touching it, it became visible. That unfortunate event was followed by another even more unfortunate in the loud clanging sound when it hit the floor.
“Shit,” he muttered as he reached down to pick it up. When he did, he bumped his head with Rusa’s head as she bent down to pick it up. A particle blaster went high over their heads while they were bent down. Koven quickly increased the setting on his PPS. He was too scared to notice the inaccuracy of the shooting.
He looked at the source of the blast and it was empty. Someone was cloaked and shooting at him. They shot again, this time lower and hitting the top of Koven’s PPS shield. An instant later a second weapon was also shooting at them. Every time their weapon would hit Koven’s PPS shield it would outline the shell he was inside of.
Koven was scared for the first few tix until he was confident that his shield was effective.
“Do you realize what you are doing?” he yelled to his assailants. “You are shooting at an agent of The History Department at the University on Central Kath, on a planet under quarantine, and you don’t have a chance of hurting me. Do you realize this?”
They answered by using his voice to aim their weapons. Five quick blasts hit his shield right in front of his face.
“They are not supposed to know about us. Didn’t you get the comms?” Koven yelled at them.
The couple in the bed were not frozen during this. They saw the white bolts of light when the weapons were fired. Tal dove to the far side of the bed and lay down on the floor. She moved quickly across the floor towards the room with the pool. The man lay beside the bed for a few tix then he made a run for the door.
And since he was unimportant to the people he could not see, no one shot at him, struck at him, or tried to prevent his progress in any way. He ran naked past the tall columns, made it to the door, and left.
Koven stood up and walked forward a few paces.
“Are you regressive? I’ve heard about them but never met one before. If you are a regressive, can you tell me if you still throw your feces, or have you gone back to eating them again?”
This time there were ten short blasts that illuminated his protective she
ll.
And while this was happening, Tal decided it was her turn to make a run for the door.
“Leave. Stop shooting at me and leave. Right now. And I will be putting this in my report. Don’t think I won’t. This is a class one violation of university policy. And your ass is mine when I find out who you are.”
Tal made it to the second-to-last column. As she ran towards the door, she ran into the long blade of an invisible light sword. Her blood and other fluids showed the shape of the weapon as it exited her back. Then the blade was pulled up hard into her chest. Then it withdrew before thrusting into her again. After that, her lifeless body fell to the floor.
When Koven saw Tal fall to the floor, he rushed over to her. It was too late. He turned on his remedium but it showed only blue, the color of death.
“Look behind you,” said Rusa. Koven turned, and at the balcony past the pool, they saw a PTD bubble leaving. A few tix later, two other bubbles formed and then departed.
Koven looked down at Tal cradled in his lap.
He heard the guards come running into the room.
“Mother Tal, where are you?” they yelled. Since she was in contact with Koven, her body was cloaked.
“It’s time to leave,” Koven heard Rusa say softly into his ear.
When he stepped away from Tal, she suddenly appeared again.
“Oh Allor,” said one of the guards, “get Allor, quick, man. Get Allor now.”
Rusa picked up Tal’s PTD as they left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
It took Koven several attempts before he was calm enough to record his report. And even then he wasn’t that calm. He found that his hands were shaking with the combination of fear and anger, more anger than he had ever known. A man who had never hurt anyone was now certain that he could kill.
The report was long and gave factual details that were sometimes unnecessary. That the floors were made of sandstone was not that important to the report, but Koven included that detail. Along with the color of the heavy curtains and a brief description of Tal that included the opinion words “strongly beautiful” and “deeply sensual.”
But most of the report centered around the shoot-out and the murder of Tal. Koven stood stiffly as he recorded his report.
“Sir. They tried to kill me,” he said in his report. “I can’t stress that enough.”
Koven sent his report and waited. He would not go back down to the surface until his report had been reviewed. He hoped that Wingut would pull him out of the mission, but he knew that the odds were low. Professor Klept would prevent any assistance or replacement. Koven settled back and watched the news report from the History Department.
On a planet called Parnon, people had voted to impose restrictions on visitors. The ecosystem on Parnon was not sufficient to handle the millions of tourists that came to see the crystal waterfalls. Tour operators were complaining, and several large cruisers were rerouted.
Koven’s report was read twenty-two tox after it was submitted. Koven waited for a reply. And then he waited some more. Then he ate. Then he watched more news reports.
He nearly leapt out of his chair when the reply from Wingut came. He opened it as fast as he could.
“You’re doing a fine job. Continue your mission.”
That was it. Nothing more. Koven found himself talking to himself loudly as he paced around his quarters.
“That’s all there is? I’m risking my life and all he can say is ‘you’re doing a fine job’?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Allor and Canto stood in front of the body of their mother on the altar in the temple. Behind them the temple was filled with The Expected, their now black robes filling the building with a solemnity.
“We will find them,” said Canto. Allor did not respond.
“And when we find them, slow revenge,” Canto added.
“That won’t bring her back,” Allor replied.
“No. But it will bring us back. Back from grief.”
Pens came up to them.
“My Lord and Princess,” he said, and bowed to them. “We have captured the man in Tal’s room. We have the assassin.”
“Who is he?” asked Canto.
“One of the young men of The Expected. The guards saw him running from the room after Mother Tal was murdered.”
“Where is he?” asked Allor.
“He is being held in one of the cells below us,” Pens replied.
“I will need you both now more than ever. Pens, I will need you to take on the work of Tal.”
“I will, my Lord.”
Two hours later, Allor was in his quarters sitting on a chair at the table. A man stood in front of him. And old man with white hair but eyebrows still black.
“Eckly, now is not the time to claim your age as a reason for failure,” Allor said.
“I’m not, my Lord. It was a misunderstanding. I said my age permitted me no speed in chasing men. However, my faculties are still fast for figuring out a thing or two.”
“Good,” said Allor.
“But my faculties are not having much success. Did you see the sky last night?”
“No, I was occupied with the death of my mother,” Allor said with an annoyed tone.
“Well, it was interesting. Right about the time that Mother Tal was taken from us, three bubble ships were seen leaving the temple. They flew west towards the ocean.”
“And you are suggesting that I executed the wrong man?”
“I’m not sure, my Lord. But what would explain the three bubble ships? They were not yours or Canto’s or Pens’s. It might have been Tal’s device, for I haven’t found it.”
“What are you saying, Eckly?”
“My Lord, we have exceeded the number of bubble ship devices you have. This can only mean that there are more of them that we were not aware of. Also, given the time of the sighting, it would make for a most excellent escape device for the killers. I was intending to question that man in custody to get his story and see how it fits or contradicts with this. Unfortunately, my Lord had already taken his head.”
“Pens assured me that he was the killer. He was seen coming out of her quarters at the time of her death.”
“And yet the killer decided his best method of escape was without his clothes,” replied Eckly.
“What?”
“His clothes are still neatly folded on the bench beside the bed,” replied Eckly.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes,” replied Eckly. “In order for me to find something, it is valuable for me to understand something.”
“What do you mean?” Allor asked.
“Tell me about the bubble ships and the personal protection suits again,” replied Eckly.
Allor spared no details in his explanation, even though as he spoke he knew that Eckly would realize that the Lord God Allor was just the man Allor, made special by alien technology. Eckly listened and asked many questions about the origin of the devices and learned of the fallen spaceship and the adventure of two young boys.
At the end of it Eckly was very quiet for many tox. Finally, he spoke.
“It is very likely that the people from the stars have returned.”
Later that night, Allor was out walking the capital cloaked as he wandered among his people. He watched as his father stood on the stairs shouting about the empty void of man.
“We feel a void in us because we don’t understand,” his father yelled loudly to the small crowd of about forty persons gathered around him. “And there are those that will take advantage of this need to understand. They have pretty packaged explanations, explanations simple enough for all of us to understand. But what if the answer is something much more complex? What if the answer is not found in the great cults of Earth 7? What if the answer is out there, among the stars?”
Many of the crowd grumbled in disbelief. A few made rude hand gestures and one person threw a piece of fruit.
Allor made his way back to the temple.
The next morning he woke to the sound of birds on his balcony.
It was only a few tox before he discovered that his personal transportation device was missing.
CHAPTER THIRTY
His name was Mosus Duplantaine. He was a fat man with rosy cheeks. He smiled a lot. But then ambassadors are predisposed to do that given the nature of their position. He stood in the throne room before the large chair upon which sat a tired-looking Allor.
“My Lord,” began the chubby man. “I bring you a message from The Highest Unconsciousness, Hundil, High Priest of the Cult of Niddler. It is a message of joy, a message of love, a message of the highest importance.”
Canto looked at Allor with a look of boredom at the wordiness of the ambassador. Both brother and sister were still grieving. This makes a person less tolerant of windbags.
“We wish to congratulate Lord Allor for the defeat of evil. The destruction of the Cult of Ceros is a moment that will be remembered. A moment remembered as when people were freed from their bondage, the slaves taken by masters and the slaves taken by belief. It is a moment that should be marked by celebration rituals and a holiday across the land.”
Canto looked at Allor and made the motion with her hands for Mosus to hurry up. Allor shook his head in response.
“We learned of the destruction of Pyramos from the first refugees and sent riders to confirm its demise. And from our reports we learned that Allor has powers we never knew about. Deadly powers. And this must be considered carefully by those that stand between My Lord and his goal.”
“So we asked ourselves, how can we assist Lord Allor in his quest?”
“And what answer did you finally arrive at?” asked Canto as she tapped her fingers against the arm of her chair.
“We most humbly ask and do sincerely request that the Cult of Niddler be allowed to disband peacefully and its members become integrated into the Cult of Allor, where given time and conversion training, they can become fully recognized members of your flock, His Own.”
