by Guy Antibes
~~~
Chapter 25
Lord Wilton, with his long gray hair streaming behind him, walked purposefully through the large city square at Ilvant, capital of Murgrontia. White stone buildings five stories high with colonnaded architecture ringed the open area. Carvings textured the columns of the buildings. Some depicted sea monsters. Others showed sea battles spiraling down the white stone. Roofs were varied with flat, gables and crenelated lines dominating the impressive skyline.
He entered the largest edifice, passing through the elaborately carved arches and up an impressive array of steps, each course carved in heroic scenes.
Once inside, his quick steps echoed in a huge hall and across the mosaic paving that depicted the sea. The denizens of the deep surrounded a map of the coasts of the known world surrounded by even more scenes of famous Murgrontian sea battles.
Up a grand flight of stairs and to the right, Wilton charged with long, purposeful steps. He threw open a set of guarded double doors. A group of men peered over a map in subdued discussion. Their heads turned towards Wilton and all straightened up at once.
Wilton raised his hands slightly. “Go back to your musings, I will listen. This will be an informal session.”
“You’re late,” said Lord Harney, the head of the Murgrontian army. “It appears that the brother of Obsomil has been slain and all of our men in Diltrant have been captured, killed or both. That killing comes just as our rangers were to invade the manufacturing facility and obtain the secret to their propulsion system. The Diltrantians even captured our ship standing by just off the coast.”
Wilton scowled. He hated failure and Obsomil now seemed to have the upper hand. “Anything else since I’ve been isolated returning from Port Alchant?”
“We remain in full control at Actobal. Mulloy remains in the dungeons underneath his palace. Our army units were responsible for the detection and subsequent execution of Diltrantian spies. Although our men were able to travel the gate from Actobal to Ilvant, there were signs that the spies might have used the gate at the old farm.”
Wilton arched his brow at the phrase, ‘subsequent execution of the spies’. “I was not told of this! You killed Diltrantians scouting out Actobal? How stupid. How much information did you get from them? Were they Obsomil’s men or his brother’s? How did they get to Actobal?”
“The execution took place as they tried to escape from the city,” Harney said.
“You killed rather than captured, so we know nothing!” Wilton could no longer restrain his anger. He slammed his fist on the table. “Now I will tell you that Obsomil is not dead. Ichar believes that Obsomil and a companion masqueraded as two nobles from Actobal and actually stayed at the Grethian Temple in Port Alchant for nearly four weeks! It was they who must have taken the Grethian travel gates with them as well as the Hand that they stole before. They must know all about the gate at the farm.”
The men murmured. “You’ve kept too much information from us. How are we expected to react when you know more of our situation than we do.” Harney gave Wilton a disgusted look.
Wilton’s hand dropped to the pommel of his sword. The men looked astonished as Wilton whipped the sword out of its sheath. Harney had his sword halfway out of his scabbard when Wilton slammed the flat of his blade on the table, making them all flinch.
“I may not be king here, but as the High Lord, I demand respect and loyalty. If I don’t get it, I get very mad, very quickly.” Lord Wilton spoke in forceful low tones. The room fell silent. “You are all to remember that I lead Murgrontia and that I am not afraid to remind you of it. I will tell you what I am going to do. I am leaving Murgrontia again and am going to Diltrant...without an army.” The men murmured again, but were stopped by Wilton’s glare.
“Yes, Diltrant,” Wilton continued. “As much as it pains me, it is time to talk to Obsomil. Maybe we do not need to be at odds and fight for the secret. Maybe I can talk him into sharing it with me. We have all pursued the path of war and may have erred in this, since it is evident we’ve underestimated the Diltrantians. With Obsomil’s death, I thought we might have had a chance to use Habamil without much difficulty. With Obsomil back, we will have to try a different tack. Nullet!”
Wilton turned to one of the younger men in the room, “Find a priest to transport you to Actobal and make certain Mulloy remains alive,” Wilton looked all of the men over, “and secure in his dungeon. Dourthun, there might be a Diltrantian ship in port. We will pay them to take a message to Obsomil saying I am coming on a state visit.”
“And then what if you fail to get their secret, Wilton?” a man said.
“I will lure Obsomil to Port Alchant and we will kill him there. We must make certain he doesn’t survive this time.”
~~~
Chapter 26
A cold wind blew out of a clear blue sky, stirring up dust devils on the bleak landscape of a high valley. The spaceship rocked with the more forceful gusts. Merinnia and Jan were suiting up, ready to inspect another set of ruins.
“The computer picked up faint background power. This could be a repository of some existing Grethian technology. Perhaps a working Grethian portal sits deep in the bowels of these ruins. As long as I’m dreaming a technical library would be very helpful,” Jan said as he helped Merinnia with her helmet.
Fosan sat back and watched as the two figures stepped into the airlock. “Good luck, you two. I wish I was going with you.” Jan and Merinnia waved as the internal door cycled shut. The outside door slid open and the ladder lowered automatically to the dusty ground. Merinnia and Jan struggled in the wind towards the center of the ruins.
The dust of centuries made parts of the destroyed city look like the surface of a rough sea. Mounds of material pushed up at spots. Any multi-storied building was totally flattened. At least they hadn’t found the entire area covered with impenetrable glass-like slag. The trio had spotted fields of the stuff as they flew over the continent.
Jan looked at the projection of city utility map from his watch. At least they had found something useful from the all of the billing tabs that he examined. There were a few street intersections that had matched the map. Jan poked around an imposing pile of rubble, waiting for Merinnia who followed. The two found a blocked opening in the ground. “Let’s find a way to get this area clear.” Merinnia said.
“Stand back,” said Jan. He aimed his blaster at the rubble. It vaporized. The two were assaulted with tiny bits of rock. Jan stepped forward to check the radiation with his meter. “It’s still hot but not immediately life threatening. The levels are less here than in some of the other places.” They picked their way around the smaller rocks remaining.
“Be careful. I’m sure that hundreds of years have not helped stabilize the place. Remember Fosan.” Merinnia cautioned.
Jan smiled at Merinnia. The smile back through her helmet warmed him considerably. Jan was not particularly comfortable with how the princess affected him. He didn’t know enough about Merinnia, the king or Diltrantian customs to feel comfortable, but he knew that Merinnia did affect him in a romantic way. Again, he idly thought about a relationship with the princess.
He hadn’t met many women on this planet and perhaps it was because she was the only female he had extended contact with while he was here. What kind of relationship would be permitted anyway? Even a casual relationship may not be permitted. She might be betrothed and he wouldn’t even know it. A thousand other objections might make any relationship disastrous.
However, he had to admit being pulled in by her charm. He liked everything about Merinnia. She had a mind, more in tune with the outside than probably any other female on the planet. She was pretty to Jan’s perspective and in excellent physical shape. She had a lot of drive and intensity. Jan liked girls that were not pushovers. His previous relationships were always with women like Merinnia and Fianna, his last girlfriend.
Jan led the way down through the hole and to a stairway below. It seemed that ancient Grethians lik
ed to build down as much as up. They passed human remains at various intervals on the stairs. The metal railings of the dark stairway seemed to be less affected by time than at the utility building.
The lights from their helmets found no life. Whatever might have been alive eons ago at the time of this particular Armageddon, had lived out its span, if not destroyed at the outset. The air was still and clear, with no movement. As the pair reached the bottom, the condition of the building improved.
No rubble had reached down to this level. The radiation still reached down to where they walked as evidenced by crusty skeletons. A door led into more darkness. Jan and Merinnia made radio contact with Fosan. If anything happened to Jan at this point, the computer could take Fosan back to Diltrant.
Merinnia led the way into a wide hallway. A reception area occupied the end of the hallway. Here it appeared some kind of organism had survived as the remains had been disturbed, but the dust on the floor indicated that this activity ended long ago. There was a tiny hole in one door leading into the reception area.
The door held fast as Merinnia tried it. “That’s okay.” Jan said. “That door leads to the men’s restroom. That symbol on the door is common throughout the universe. The door next to it is for ladies.” he smiled at a somewhat embarrassed princess.
“Let’s try this one.” He pushed hard with his shoulder on a set of double doors,, but the frames wouldn’t budge. He pulled out his blaster and fired. They made their way through the large hole in the door. Another, larger, hallway confronted them. A door at the end of the hallway stood ajar, showing nothing but an inky blackness beyond.
“I feel like I am floating underwater at the bottom of the sea,” Merinnia said. “We are in these suits, there is nothing but darkness except for our lights. We can’t breathe the air. Except for not being able to float, we could be thousands of feet down exploring the ruins of a sunken city.”
“In a way, you’re right,” Jan said. “It’s just that the water is a little thin. Air, being a gas, still has weight. Where I live, you can buy devices that will let you float in the air.”
They entered a large room—so large their lights did little to cut through the darkness above. The purpose of the place was apparent when Jan noticed the portal set into the floor surrounded by shelving. The pair examined the portal. Jan found the power cell slot empty. He took a power cell from a pocket. It slipped in easily. The portal activated. Jan looked around. “Merinnia, do you wish to go home now? You can you know. This portal can get you there.” Jan offered with a grin on his face.
“No I don’t think so, though Fosan might. I’ll ask him.” Merinnia replied with a grin.
“I am kidding. The contaminated air would go along with us and we wouldn’t have the means to decontaminate our suits. This portal checks out as well as the portals we have back in Diltrant. What we need to find is a portal network. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there are portals in the basements of many of the buildings, like the one that Fosan fell into. Warehousing could be located anywhere in on the continent with the portals used to deliver goods. In fact, I would say that the portals would be used as much for goods as for transportation in an active society. It would change the infrastructure of any civilization.”
“Infrastructure?” asked the princess,
“Yes, when your civilization grows and people interact more, you need infrastructure to make the society work.” Jan could see this explanation went nowhere. He continued, “When a society becomes more mature, farmers specialize in fewer crops because the farmer knows he or she can trade their extra crops for other goods. When you trade, you need roads. When you trade you need to communicate with people that you have goods to sell. Transportation and Communications are part of the infrastructure.” Jan noticed Merinnia was losing interest in his little lecture.
“That means that Diltrant using the ship engines only for itself may be holding back advances for the total infrastructure of our world?” Merinnia said.
Jan relaxed—she had been listening. “That and other things. Your father’s goal of uniting the world will help improve everything. Planning improvements to a planet’s infrastructure was part of what I did before I came here.”
“It must have been fascinating work!”
He ignored her comment, after getting a quick mental picture of Artis Smith, and walked on. “This is one of the warehouses!” Jan said, changing the subject, pointed to all of the shelving. It filled the remainder of the large room. The ceiling was still very high. “We’re certain to find something interesting in here.”
They looked around at the goods. Many of the softer goods had decomposed and were ruined with age. There were other items that Jan examined and explained their function to Merinnia. There were others Jan couldn’t even figure out.
They separated and began to explore on their own. Merinnia called out to Jan. “I think I have found a section of portable portals.”
Jan ran to her location. Merinnia stood in front of racks of portals identical to those Jan took from the Temple at Alchant. “These are invaluable! We should test them out. I can even afford to take one apart to see how it works.” Jan excitedly went to one shelf. “Look, here are real small portals. Probably low power, maybe for the home. All we need are more power cells.”
“Like these over here?” Merinnia exclaimed. The excitement was getting to her. Jan looked at her and thought how enchanting she as the flush of discovery overcame them both.
Jan walked over and saw cases of power cells. He picked one out of a tote and slid it into one of the little portals. It lit right up. The cell indicator showed about 80 % strength.
He took four of the small portals, slid power cells into each and set them apart from each other. He took a crumbling box of parts from a shelf and set it on one of the portals. An area about ten square meters faintly glowed over the sending portal. Jan could feel the portal field building with that faint sense of electrical energy. Then instantly, the box disappeared raising a puff of dust around the portal, and then reappeared on the receiving portal. He repeated the procedure with all four portals sending and receiving.
He picked up a power cell and looked at it. “I’ll bet my ship can recharge these.”
“Merinnia, let’s look around for tabs that have coordinates of other places.” Jan smiled and turned his helmet light towards what appeared to be administrative offices. All warehouses looked alike no matter what planet or what era, Jan thought. He would liked to have found big machines like the ones in the hall, but not in this place.
~~~
Chapter 27
The ship bumped into the pier at Diltrant. Wilton waited impatiently below until the matters of docking were completed. As he descended the gangplank, an honor guard closed in around the High Lord of Murgrontia. The group moved in unison, parting the crowd as they set off for the palace.
A wind picked up and sent a chill throughout the group. Wilton could feel a twitch go up his back, an instantaneous spasm. The tension of what was to come could not be held entirely in check. His face was a mask of smiles as he nodded to the silent, sullen crowds. He could sense the hostility in the eyes of his enemy.
As he moved up the incline to the palace, he questioned the strategy he was about to employ. The alternatives were fighting a relentless war with Diltrant. And over what? Murgrontia wanted its trade domination back. Already he ruled Actobal in everything but name. He controlled most of the trade going through Port Alchant, although the priests were unaware how thoroughly he had seized the authority on the docks. Yes, he had enough of a position to negotiate with Obsomil.
The shark ships were still a force Diltrant needed to reckon with. After all this time the secret of their ships remained intact. The one ship they captured had blown up when his men tried to take off the cover of their motive device. Wilton clutched his fist as he thought about it. He wouldn’t leave Diltrant without that secret.
The group stopped at the entrance to the palace. A too-lo
ng door opening ceremony delayed their entrance and only added to his impatience. The tentative way the men performed it was evident that this was something new. Obsomil undoubtedly made him stand through this to put him off of his guard. Wilton pursed his lips as he tried to temper his anger.
Wilton was shown to quarters where he and his men would enjoy the hospitality of Diltrant. Obsomil came to Wilton’s quarters. There was a large sitting room. Both men bowed to each other. Obsomil bade Wilton to sit.
Obsomil paused a bit overlong and began, “Lord Wilton, I am pleased and frankly somewhat surprised that you have undertaken this journey to my land.” Wilton felt a little uncomfortable sitting in front of a standing Obsomil and he rose to his feet in spite of himself. He wouldn’t let Obsomil, of all men, stand while he sat.
“King Obsomil,” Lord Wilton said, “I want to end these covert hostilities. I only heard two weeks ago, that while Actobal was under Murgrontian custodianship, my men slaughtered a group of your subjects. I have had an “overzealous” subject in charge. I do not apologize for that. But, I feel we need to discuss these things in hopes of arriving at a treaty of some kind I can take to my Nobles’ Council. As you know in Murgrontia, we have no king. I have some power as High Lord, but it is not absolute. I only want my actions and the actions of Murgrontia to add to the advancement of our collective peoples in the world.” Ingratiating himself to Obsomil irritated him, but after the debacle in the aftermath of killing the King’s brother, he had no choice. A failed invasion would only make an eventual victory that much more costly.
“That’s admirable, Lord Wilton. I, too, wish to unify all of the people of Grethia. Maybe this is the start that we need,” Obsomil said as he sat down in a chair facing Wilton. The men continued to talk of other things for a few minutes longer. There was much in common among the two rulers and it surprised Wilton how ruling a country has so many similarities regardless of the respective political positions. Obsomil made it clear that the two countries were on the cusp of war before he left Wilton. More formal talks were arranged for the next day.
