The Intern (The Forbidden World Book 1)

by Garry Ocean

  “Otherwise, we will find ourselves in such a difficult situation,” he warned, “that our recent fiasco with the ‘natives’ will seem just a vulgar but still acceptable joke.”

  “The Promised Land inhabitants are direct descendants of the Earth residents and as such have the full right to join the Galactic Commonwealth. However, there’s one big ‘but.’ Had we found on this planet the heroes of the Ninth Interstellar Expedition themselves, there would have been no questions asked: The period of integration into the modern society, I believe, would be quick and painless for the most. I am sure our Sociology Department would have handled this brilliantly. But during the last three centuries, the planet has seen at least twelve generations of people. I believe we will have the exact number soon. Since they were unwillingly isolated from their Alma Mater, which is the Earth for everyone at all times, an inevitable, and most importantly, irreversible degradation of their society took place. I cannot even tell at this point how much time would be required to get them back to our level of development.”

  “But this is just one side of the coin. There’s the reverse. As we know, the planet was successfully inhabited by about 40,000 people. Now the population is about half a million. Despite the complicated local conditions, people managed to adapt and increase in numbers. Yes, they have lost their technical knowledge. I believe many in this council saw a video recording where one of the natives used the portable molecular microscope as a device to crack open the local nuts. However, they also managed to create a certain power structure and fabric of society. I understand that any modern person would be shocked by everything that is happening there. But let me assure you that the history of Earth has a lot of black spots as well. I don’t want to start and be dragged into long debates here. We will have time for that later.”

  “However, today I would like to appeal to the Council: Let us consider and treat the population of this planet not as distressed residents of Earth who need help, but as an established society, and, I won’t be afraid to say this, as a self-sustaining civilization. And in conclusion, I am officially requesting that the Contact Committee keeps its mandate to continue the work it started on the Promised Land…”

  Why his memory brought up this story at this particular moment, Nick did not know. It just surfaced by itself. Perhaps, his mind drew a parallel between those events and his current situation? How could he explain all the inconsistencies of the world he found himself in, albeit due to his own stupidity? For example, let’s take the gigantic pyramids causing the quantum resonance and directly connected, most surely, to the encapsulation of an entire planetary system. Someone must have built them. But who? Not the hunters, indeed. Then who are these mysterious homo sapiences? Because in truth, they are the only ones who can help him get out of this world. Which means he needs to find them. And where and how to look for them? Nick’s father used to say, “Any information should be taken from the original source.” Logically, the source should be in the Old City.

  “So, what do you say, Nick?” Whisperer’s voice interrupted his reflections. “Do you want to set out on a search of the Old City?”

  Nick was in no rush to answer. He disliked the innuendo and secrets in the air.

  “All right,” Nick finally said. He had already decided that he’d go there no matter what. And innuendo? Sooner or later, everything will become clear. “I am ready to go even now.”

  “It’s a long way, full of dangers at every turn,” Frice responded with enthusiasm. “A long time ago, Rich and I… excuse me, Whisperer and I, made a list of everything necessary for the trip. If you need anything else, tell me now. After the Celebration, everything will be waiting for you in the place we agree upon.”

  “The most convenient and easiest way would be to wait out the Exodus in the City, and then set out on the journey immediately after. The Forest activity in the first month after the Exodus is much lower. We need to take advantage of that and try to get as deep into the Forest as possible. I will talk with Ron and Valu about this. They will select several other good hunters. The group should not be too large, not to create trouble. I suspect Ron and Valu might want to stay with their loved ones for the Exodus, so they will join us after it,” Whisperer did not mention that he should be with the villagers as well. He did not want to take the risk. He had been waiting for someone like Nick for so long that if something were to happen to Nick during the Exodus, Whisperer would never forgive himself. He must protect him at any cost… Why and for how long, Whisperer did not know. But this time he would go to the end. Even if it is a one-way journey.

  ********

  Nick and Whisperer finally got to Red's workshop after midnight. They hardly closed the yard door when they realized something had happened. The host, wearing his usual leather apron, met them in the yard with a concerned look on his face.

  “Big trouble, Rich!” he ran up to Whisperer. “The city guards arrested your friends!”

  “How did this happen?” the old man tried to remain calm on the outside.

  “I am not sure yet,” Red was nervous, “I’ve sent Sleepy there, you know, the boy can find out everything easier.”

  “Where, ‘there’?”

  “What do you mean, where?” Red shrugged. “Ah, well, you don’t know anything. They went to the ‘Wine Cellar’ pub. There was some fight there. Someone called the city guards and they arrested everyone. You know, Rich, they are very strict about it during the Celebration!”

  “This is something I don’t need right now,” Whisperer thought a little. “How long ago did Sleepy go there?”

  “Don’t know, a couple of hours. When my neighbor Glon knocked on my door and asked, like, aren’t those arrested foresters yours…” here Red stopped and said, “I’m sorry, Rich, you know everyone here calls you that…”

  “It’s all right, Red, please go on,” Whisperer encouraged the embarrassed host.

  “So, when he said that, I sent my boy there right away, perhaps he would find out something. You know, Whisperer, kids are so…” Red paused, looking for a fitting word, “crafty, kids are.”

  The old man sighed heavily, as if confirming his words. Right that moment, the gate opened and Sleepy ran into the yard, out of breath. Everyone stared at him silently. The boy started to tell, trying to catch his breath, “So, listen to this, the news is hot, out of the horse’s mouth. Kith, the pub owner’s son and like my old friend, was like helping his father in the kitchen when everything happened. Well, you know, now there’s a lot of people, everyone comes from everywhere for the celebration. So, Kith is helping out with the dishes and things…”

  The boy took a deep breath and continued, “Kith said, the foresters were sitting there minding their own business, eating, drinking, not looking at anyone else, just like usual. And then these ones came in, they were also foresters, but like strange. Their clothes are not like normal people wear, but hides with the fur out. So, there were no free seats in the pub anymore, hardly any space at all, but they said that those first foresters were their acquaintances and went to join them right away.”

  The boy caught his breath again. He clearly liked that the four adult men were listening to him without interrupting even once, and went on, “And Kith is like, he sees and notices everything, even though he does not let anyone know it. He ran up to them, he said, to take the order because his mother was already so swamped she couldn’t come up to everyone. So he decided to help out with serving them. Too many customers. So, he ran up to their table and asked, ‘What would you like to order, dear guests?’ And them, being such large men, all eight of them, say, like no, we don’t need anything. So, Kith, of course, was surprised. He said, how is it, you came to the pub and are not going to order anything? And here one of them grabbed him by the shoulder with his huge paw. Squeezed it so hard that Kith’s vision blurred. And the man says to him, “Go away, boy, or else. We have a very important conversation here.” Well, Kith, of course ran to the kitchen, just to stay away from trouble. In less
than a minute all hell broke loose. There was a lot of yelling, everyone jumped off the chairs. Some rushed to the door, some got on the tables. Chairs, plates and utensils were flying around the room. Then, Kith said, only when it calmed down a little, he saw one of those who came the last lying on the floor face down. And two spears sticking out of his back. They were short and thick, those spears. And his fur was already soaked in blood, and the pool of blood under him was getting larger. It was clear as day that he was catching up with the Departed. And our three foresters were standing around, jaws dropped, not understanding what had happened. And then the one who’d grabbed Kith by the shoulder started to yell that those three had killed his friend, pointing at them his finger.”

  “That’s the story,” Sleepy said wrapping up his narration and adding, “But Kith says that those three had no spears. They had knives, he saw them for sure, but no spears. And they had nowhere to hide them. They’d been sitting there half a day, eating and drinking. He was sure, there were no spears, nowhere to hide them. And then the guards came, and arrested everyone. They must have taken them to the city jail.”

  “This is really bad,” Whisperer said wistfully, pulling his beard. “Killing during the Celebration is the worst crime. Even if the killed one is a simple forester.”

  “But I can’t understand, where did Ron and Valu got spears from?” Nick looked at Whisperer perplexedly. “They’d taken them away from us on the other bank. And we had lunch with them in that pub together!”

  “I am afraid, it’s not that simple,” Whisperer shook his head. “I won’t be surprised if those spears turn out to be ours. Judging by Kith’s description of their clothes, those were the southerners.”

  “Southerners?” Nick still looked perplexed. “So what?”

  “It’s a set up,” Whisperer took a pause, as if thinking about something for himself. “You and I got lucky, because we left earlier. I am sure we were the target of the southerners or whoever is behind them.”

  “A set up?” Nick could not believe that. “And they killed one of their own for that? No, Whisperer, I am sorry, of course, but I believe you are mistaken, I don’t think so.”

  Whisperer looked at him for a long time, and then said, in a sad voice, “I don’t know where you’ve come from, Nick, but I am more and more sure that life there is better than ours many times. All right, let’s go to bed. We won’t be able to do anything now, and tomorrow morning I’ll try to pull some strings.”

  ********

  Nick was awakened by some unusual noise coming from the street. He bolted on the bed, trying to understand what was happening. Finally, he recognized in the cacophony of the sounds a long howl of the trumpets and loud pounding of the drums. Nick pulled the window curtain aside and looked outside. Along the Butchery Street, a dense crowd of people was moving. Many of them were carrying some branches, and others – long poles with some dummies tied to the top. It was hard to tell if they were the dummies of animals or huge insects, or perhaps both. In any case, they looked disgusting.

  The crowd was chanting something out of sync, and it was hard to understand what. The loud cacophony was coming somewhere from the farthest houses and completely covered the crowd’s shouting. Nick saw that all windows in all houses were open wide and the residents, out in the windows to the waste line, were throwing heaps of dry leafs on top of the crowd. The people in the crowd, in their turn, were poking them with the long poles with dummies on them, making a loud incomprehensible roar.

  Nick looked back at Whisperer’s bed. The old man was already gone. Meanwhile, the noise was becoming louder. Nick stood there for a little while, thinking what would be better: to shut the window or leave it wide open, just like the other ones. Having come to no conclusion, he quickly put on his clothes and left the room. Downstairs, he ran into Sleepy. The boy shrieked, “Happy Exodus!” and poured at unsuspecting Nick dry tree leafs from head to toe.

  Sleepy stood there for some time saying nothing, as if waiting for some action in response from Nick, but when Nick did nothing, skipped toward the gate.

  “You are awake?” Red came out toward him. “Whisperer asked to tell you that you should stay home. He was afraid something like yesterday could happen again.”

  “All right, Red, I understand,” Nick smiled at him. “But what is going on here? It’s so noisy, as if a stinkh herd is coming, and so many people in the streets?”

  “What do you mean, ‘what’?” Red looked at him, surprised. “Have you fallen off the Dominia? The Celebration has started, the day of the First Exodus!”

  The host shook his head and added, “Although Rich once told me that the foresters, oh, I’m sorry, residents of near-Forest, do not celebrate it, true?”

  “Well, I can’t say for sure,” Nick smiled. “I live a little bit farther, but as far as I can tell, they are not so enthusiastic about the celebration as you are.”

  “Is that so?” Red was surprised. “A little farther? And where is that, I wonder? Although, please forgive me my curiosity, it’s none of my business, of course.”

  The host switched to a different topic, “My business is to process the hide and to make good boots. Let’s better go eat. In honor of the Celebration, my dear wife has fried the meat of none other but the roller.” He then smiled as a plotter and winked at Nick, saying, “Just don’t tell her that this is in fact just horsemeat!”

  The meat was good indeed, and although Nick had never tried neither horsemeat nor a roller stake, he followed Red’s advice and praised his wife’s culinary talents. The lunch was almost over, when Whisperer entered the yard quietly. Just by his look, Nick realized that the things did not go well. The old man sat at the table and refused the food offered to him with his hand. Then he greedily drank a bowl of wine and said, “The information about yesterday’s incident was reported directly to the Judge.”

  Nick did not understand what that meant, but judging by how Red croaked and his wife went pale, it wasn’t good and Nick felt dizzy.

  “Now I am absolutely sure that this was a provocation, a set-up,” Whisperer banged his fist on the table. The old man was clearly angry. Nick never saw him like that.

  “For a murder of some forester by another forester, albeit during the Celebration, to get on the Judge’s table on the same day? And for him to take it under his personal control? No, I simply cannot believe it!” Whisperer fell silent, biting his lips nervously. “Who is behind this all? And why us?”

  “Oh, good grief!” the hostess clasped her hands. “What is going to happen to them now?”

  “What’s going to happen?” Whisperer did not look at anyone. “The investigation is over. They are proven guilty.”

  “How’s that – proven?” Nick couldn’t hold himself.

  “It’s not that hard!” Whisperer pulled his beard strongly. “There’s a whole crowd of witnesses, the murder weapons are exactly like those the Northern hunters use. By a strange coincidence, instead of the five spears that we left at the pier, the garrison guards found only three. Add your clash with the southerners on the swamps on top of all. At the court registrar I was personally shown a complaint from the vakh tribe.”

  Whisperer smirked and continued, “On three pages. It describes in colorful detail how an armed cap-a-pie squad of the Valley hunters perfidiously ambushed unsuspecting and exhausted vakhs. Who, as it happened, were coming back with a particularly valuable catch fetched by assignment of the City Guardians. Three vakhs, including the tribe’s elder Ulo, were killed in an unequal battle, and the precious catch was stolen. Should I continue?”

  “But this is such an impudent lie!” Nick could not believe his ears. “Whisperer, we need to go there right away. I will tell them the truth! I was there!”

  “Hothead!” Whisperer snapped at him. “I hardly got away alive myself. I had to use,” the old man stumbled a little, “some of my abilities.”

  “What will be their fate?” Red asked quietly.

  “At best, hard labor in quarries fo
r life,” Rich answered quietly as well. “I don’t have connections strong enough to go against the Judge. No one can influence him anyway,” Whisperer looked down. “Perhaps, only the Supreme One, but that is…” he clasped his hands.

  “Or the Ritual,” suddenly the hostess said. The men stared at her, dumbfounded.

  “Wow, woman, that’s a thought!” Red guessed first, and added sarcastically, “How did you come up with this? And who will be brave enough to do it?”

  Everyone fell silent. Nick was sitting there, not understanding, but feeling the glances everyone was throwing at him.

  “Definitely not!” Whisperer said decisively. “This is a stupid idea.”

  “What’s the matter?” Nick exploded. “What are you all talking about? If there’s anything I can do to help my friends, I will do it!”

  “The Highest Request,” the woman spoke again.

  “The Highest Request?” Nick finally started to catch up.

  “Yes, the Highest Request,” the woman was looking at him carefully. “The winner gets the right to the Highest Request.”

  “Does that mean that if I win I will be able to ask to set them free?” Nick asked cautiously.

  “But the best warriors from all over the beyond the River will be there!” Red rubbed his cheeks nervously. “Just alvars alone are worth a lot. And people say the steppe dwellers are going to send theirs as well.”