by Eric Black
Babel saw the design of the Keeper. He was appalled by the strategy – a total disreagard to life – but at the same time, what other response had he left the Keeper? He had shoved the Keeper into a corner and generally that resulted in reprisal.
“Does your world have the means to defeat the Klopph?” Quentin asked.
“The Klopph do not have the numbers to wage war with many of the nations in my world but their technology gives them a significant advantage.”
“What do you mean?”
“Their body shields will repel gunfire. They can jam air attacks. My world can defeat them but it’ll take a coordinated effort. That’s not something that comes easy with my world.”
“I’m not sure I understand. Your world is made of many different people?”
“My world has seven billion people living in a couple hundred different countries.”
“Seven billion?” Quentin interrupted, shocked.
Babel ignored the interruption and continued. “In this world there is one government and one nation. In my world, there are two hundred nations and each of those nations has their own form of government. There are large governments, such as in my nation but the relationships between the governments are often complex.”
“So if the Klopph attack?”
“They will kill many people before the nations band together to make a response.”
“How many people are we talking about?” Jims asked.
“Thousands in the first few days. Possibly several hundred thousand before the governments can respond with a coordinated effort that would be effective.”
The three of them silently regarded the damage that the Klopph could incur. And it was more than physical damage. Since they had returned to the past, what if they did something to change the future. Babel was the first to speak. “We’ll determine how to deal with the Klopph. But first, we have more pressing items at hand.” He turned to Quentin and nodded towards the ruined Erőd. “We need to visit the lower levels.”
CHAPTER FIFTY TWO
Babel led the way through the maze of the Erőd. The building had been altered throughout the centuries, converted from apartments to offices and now to a fortress that was a military complex that combined interrogation, war offices, and living quarters. Plus, the disorientating effect of the twisted hallways made it difficult for escape – not that anyone locked in an interrogation room had been able to do.
Quentin allowed himself to be led only so far. They receded down several levels and noticed a sign that announced they had reached the morgue. The words infused Quentin with recklessness and he tore off down the hallway. Babel and Jims called after him but were led to sprint to catch up.
Quentin heaved his shoulder against the double doors to the morgue. He expected the doors to be latched but they swung inward and his momentum propelled him forward, spilling him onto the floor. He didn’t notice. He bounced up unfazed and entered the backroom of the morgue where the burner was located. The trap door of burner was closed and he couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or not.
As he reached forward to undo the latch, he thought back on when he returned from death in this same room. He had woken surrounded by the bodies of his family. The memory of that morose moment was insufferable. It was most difficult decision he ever had to make, the decision to leave the bodies of his wife and children. He knew the bodies would be burned; but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t escape with the bodies. If he couldn’t escape, he couldn’t reach Jims and the village and couldn’t reach Babel. He could have killed several of the Klopph before he was killed again, but a few dead Klopph would not change anything. He needed to kill the Keeper to start the change the world needed but could not do that alone.
He twisted the handle on the trap door and pulled. The heavy door slowly opened on hydraulics. He took a deep breath and peered down into the burner. His children were looking up at him. All five of them. Their faces displayed the horror and consternation of the burner but hope also slipped into their wet eyes as they witnessed their liberation.
Quentin didn’t think about it, he just jumped into the burner. His children were eight feet below him. It was just deep enough that the children could not climb out. Quentin fell to his knees and his children collapsed in his arms. Each of them was afraid if they let go, they would find out that the moment was not real, so they held on.
Finally, Quentin raised his tear-stained face to his children. It had been several weeks since he had seen them. Trapped with them inside of the burner were several charred corpses. They had been without food or water and Quentin could only imagine the horrors that his children had lived with during that time. How many times had they died? Had they burned to death? Did they die from dehydration or starvation? Quentin knew that they would have to deal with all of those questions in time.
“I’m sorry I left you here.” He was barely able to get the words out. “I want you to know that you’ll never be without me again. I’ll always be there for you. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”
“So what do we do now?” Jims’ voice was thick. They had witnessed Quentin’s reunion and now waited in the adjacent room.
“We can talk about that soon. Not just yet.”
The tears broke free and trailed Jims’ jawline. “They are my nieces and nephews. I thought I would never see them again. I just need a minute.”
“Take all the time you need. Why don’t you go down there with them? I’ll wait out here.” Jims started to object but in his heart, he knew that was exactly what he needed to do.
Babel walked the hallways to give Quentin and Jims the time they needed. He kept a vigilant watch but they were unmolested within the torched walls. Nostalgia touched him as he walked. “This will be my Palātium.”
The words stopped Babel and he measured his decision. “Am I really going to stay here? I have agreed to be the Császár but in my mind it has always been to lead the people to freedom. Once we’ve taken back over, they won’t need me. Quentin can do the job.”
He wondered the halls in thought until he found himself back at the morgue. Waiting on him with Jims and Quentin were Quentin’s five children. “Guys, you remember Babel right?”
CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
The Klopph were losing. They had underestimated the military in India. As they bunkered along the border, they discovered not only native troops but a host comprised of many nations.
Perhaps the Chinese government had shared intelligence.
“Do you think we made a mistake in coming here?” the Keeper asked the Cancellarrii.
The question was a surprise. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“I’m not entirely sure I didn’t order us to this world out of revenge. The Chokka destroyed part of our world and I wanted him to feel that same pain as I destroyed part of his world.”
“Do you still feel that way?”
“From what I’ve observed here, these nations do not seem to care much for each other. They tolerate each other and I’m sure on occasions they work with each other, but I don’t know that us killing people in India or China is going to make a difference to this Chokka who is from another nation.”
“So we’ve failed. You think we should count our losses and pull back to our world?”
“I’m saying that unless we can find our way directly into the heart of the nation of the Chokka – a place called America – it seems to make the most sense right now. The portal can take us there but with no knowledge of that land, I don’t know that what we conquer there will be vital enough to cripple them. And will the potential loss of our men be worth it if we have minimal impact on our assault?”
“We serve you. We only await your order.”
The Keeper surveyed the terrain and took in the rocks that built the environment. “Yes, it is time to go home.”
“Very well.” said the Cancellarrii. “I will assemble the men for departure. You will call the portal?”
The Keeper nodded. With
the Cancellarrii dismissed, the Keeper cogitated the campaign. In the early stages, they had been remarkably successful. Ruthless efficiency, it appeared, won out regardless of the world.
By the third day of the campaign, they had acquired their first region. “What is this place called again?” the Keeper asked the Cancellarrii over a map.
“This temple?” the Cancellarrii asked.
“No, the geography.”
“We are in an area called Uttar Pradesh. If we keep pushing north, we will come to the land of Nepal.”
“And the terrain there is similar?”
“It is. Although as we continue north, the mountains will increase.”
“Amazing, is it not? The vastness of this world. And the map we have constitutes only a portion of this world.”
“It is strange that there is no unity. It appears that each location has its own name and operates separately.”
“If they are independent of each other, then they are weak. We can take one nation and then move on to another.”
The Cancellarrii considered the comment. “We have been lucky so far. We have been able to repel their offences. Some of their soldiers speak of bombs that are dropped from above. We would not be able to defeat such a weapon.”
“So we must continue to move. We can detect such a weapon being deployed, can we not?” The Cancellarrii nodded. “Well then, we will be prepared. If necessary, we will use the portal to gain the other exit points of this world. We can take those locations by surprise, just as we did here.”
During their three days in the world of the Chokka, the Keeper’s mind wandering to thoughts of what was happening in his world. “By now there should be some semblance of anarchy.”
Then, came the invasion of China. The results were underwhelming and depleted the Klopph’s resources. On the fifth day of the China conflict, the Cancellarrii consulted the Keeper. “We can’t take another onslaught like we today.”
The Klopph to that point had been able to kill the opposing force in massive numbers, but the Chinese force was too large and the deaths did not have the same impact. Where other forces continued to use firearms, the Chinese learned quickly that bullets were not going to assure triumph. Their tanks were ineffective as well. Missile strikes, guided weapons, and aircraft were all detected by the Klopph and were rendered inert prior to impact.
Finally, one of the Chinese soldiers threw a grenade out of desperation. It had a surprising effect on the Klopph. As the grenade exploded, the Klopph’s body shields did not fail but the bodies of the Klopph were propelled, disrupting formations.
“That’s it.” the soldier cried out. He rushed to his commander and explained what had happened. That commander took it to his superiors and soon the command was given. It would be an all-out grenade assault.
The body shields of the Klopph could withstand substantial explosions but they could not handle the rain of grenades. The grenades did not contain the electronics involved with other forms of weaponry so the Klopph jamming systems could not stop them. As the grenades continued to fall, some of the body shields began to fail and when they did, the Klopph began to die.
There was no slowing by the Chinese. They had found a way to impact the Klopph and they would not relent. Nearly a thousand Klopph died before the order to fall back was sounded.
The Cancellarrii was furious. He had rarely faced defeat. The Klopph had always been the superior force. He conferred with the Keeper. “We have no sustainable defense for their explosives. They do not respond to our disruptors. We have killed thousands of their men but more keep coming with explosions. Perhaps we should pull back until we can discover their weakness.”
Like the Cancellarrii, the Keeper was not accustomed to losing. As much as he disliked the idea of pulling back, he knew it was probably the wise choice. “I do not come to this decision lightly but I agree. We don’t want to keep getting picked off bit-by-bit. We need to regroup. Very well, order them back. We will retreat back to the mountains and there we can strategize.”
That evening, under cover of night, they pulled back. The Chinese watched their movement through night vision eyewear and the empty field in the morning light confirmed that they had indeed retreated.
The Klopph made their new position deep inside of the range of razor-sharp mountains. That evening, the Keeper approached the Cancellarrii. “We are settled in?” The Cancellarri nodded. “And the mood of the men?”
“They are as steadfast as ever. Their loyalty to you is unflinching.”
The Keeper smiled slightly. “You have done an excellent job with these men. The quiet of these mountains remind me of the homes of our youth. To think from those two young men came all of this. And now we must consider where were are. We are not those reckless young men any longer and we should not approach this war in the same reckless manner as those young men. It is possible that the Chinese are too strong for us.”
The Cancellarrii did not want to admit defeat but he saw logic in the Keeper’s comment. It would be better to swallow a little pride than to fight for pride and lose everything. “It is possible.”
The Keeper knew how difficult it was for the Cancellarrii to admit that. “We could turn back west, drive through northern India and then move into Pakistan.”
“It is said there are many caves as we enter the north of that nation. We should be able to use the caves as a base to attack the nations of Afghanistan and Iran.”
The Keeper considered their next move for a few more moments before giving his decision. “We will wait here for one day and no longer. Order the men to prepare to move out tomorrow evening.”
Two days later they returned to India; the Indian military was ready for them.
The Klopph were able to fight their way along but at a heavy cost. It did not take them long to realize they could not win. The Keeper, without consultation of any of his officers, made the decision to retreat back to their world. The shame was his and he would bear it alone. He would not damage the reputation of his officers to their soldiers.
The force was assembled and the Keeper prepared the device that would release the Chokka energy and call the Bejárat. Only nothing happened. He tried again; again there was nothing.
He looked to his Cancellarrii. “I don’t understand.”
“Could it be that they have discovered our energy and have learned to block it?”
“That would mean that we are stranded. No, I do not believe that. The Chokka came from this world to our world without the Bejárat. How did he do that? There must be a portal in this world that we can access naturally.”
“That makes sense. I will activate the device to locate that energy in this world.”
Soon after, the coordinates were determined. “There is energy that comes from within this nation. We will have to fight our way south but we can make it.”
After much death, they found themselves facing the structure known as the Taj Mahal. But in isolating their location, the Klopph were soon surrounded by the Indian military and the assault increased.
The Klopph entered the Taj Mahal compound and the device led them to the source of the energy. The portal was opened, guiding a way back to the world of the Klopph. “Good job.” said the Keeper. “Start mobilizing the troops and get them through the portal.”
The Cancellarrii nodded. “We will not be able to take all of our machinery back through the portal. Some of them will just be too large. That will be to our disadvantage when we return to our world.”
“Understood. Unfortunately we don’t have much of a choice.”
The Cancellarrii called his commanders together and let them know of the decision. The exit strategy consisted of half of the troops fighting while the other half returned through the portal. They would keep splitting the forces in half until all the forces were through. The Cancellarrii and the Keeper would remain and fight with the final battalion. Once everyone was back in their world, the Keeper would close the portal and they would regroup in their own wor
ld.
Aside from the machinery they would leave, another disadvantage was they were going back to their world blind without knowledge of the success of the Chokka in their absence. There would not be enough time to recon and send back a report before they entered their world.
The bombardment on the Taj Mahal continued, destroying the landmark. The Indian military loathed that such a piece of their history was a casualty but it was more important to defeat the aggressors. They pushed in and through the smoke of battle, the finally reached the ruined structure. There, remained the bodies of the fallen Klopph and scattered weaponry of their enemy. The Klopph were gone.
It was the secrets of that weaponry that would unlock the war that would kill all but a few of the people of the world and create the world that the Klopph now once again inhabited.
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
The Cancellarrii and the Keeper were the last two to go through the portal. The Keeper gave the foreign land one final view before closing the portal. They had been defeated but he could take some level of solace in the destruction they caused in the other world. Plus, he knew that their absence had left a void in their own world for crime to fester and anarchy to take root. “There is no way the Chokka could have responded quickly enough to change that.”
He turned to the Cancellarrii. “Take inventory of our casualties and divide the battalions as needed.”
The Keeper looked over the empty street satisfied as the Cancellarrii departed to realize his order. They had reentered the world just outside of the Cemetery of the Elder Quarter, only a few blocks from the Erőd. When the Klopph were in position, they would march on the Erőd and reestablish their command in this world.
He waited patiently for the Cancellarrii to finish meeting with the commanders and only a short time went by before the Cancellarrii delivered his report. “It is done. We have suffered heavy casualties but the spirit of the Klopph is unbreakable as ever.”
