by H. T. Kofruk
“I need to talk to you about something else as well. Do you think you can spare me a few more minutes?” he said.
“Sure. I was about to go to the dining facility to get a bite.”
“I was thinking some place more discrete.”
“Oh” she said. “Do want some tea at my place?”
“If it’s the same shit you served last time, I’ll pass” he replied with a smile on his face. From his pocket he produced a small box of the finest grade black tea.
“When can I see him?” she said while preparing two cups of tea.
“I don’t know yet. He’s being confined to military intelligence for now for obvious reasons. The rest of the people on this installation can’t know what’s happening to him. I’ll try and see if we can get you in.”
She put down the two cups on a low table and broke a square of chocolate that Terry had produced from his pocket before sitting down on a pouf. She nibbled appreciatively at the dark square as if it was a luxury that wouldn’t come again. “This isn’t any of that synthetic rubbish. I actually think real cacao was used to make this” she said before putting the whole piece in her mouth. “It’s divine.”
Terry took out the tea infuser before the tea became too strong and sipped at it. “Just like mum’s” he said. “Actually even better.”
The pair both closed their eyes to savour the small pleasures. They were transported to better times when their biggest worries were where to go on holiday or what to have for dinner. It made both of them homesick.
“I miss my parents” said Heera. “And my brother and sister.”
“That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. You might have heard that the Nikruk have managed to create communication bubbles around Earth, limiting any information flow. But every now and again, we’re able to pick up patches of information that somehow got through. I accessed our database to see the contents and a few of them contain survivor rosters.”
Heera’s eyes sparkled. “Are they alive?”
Terry nodded.
“Where are they?”
“Your whole family escaped Tai-pyoung and reached Vancouver when the Chinese started to overrun the island. When the aliens turned on their masters, soldiers from the Pacific Federation took as many people as they could to an island a few hundred miles north of Vancouver called Graham Island. It’s become a sort of fortified survivors’ colony. Your family is on the survivor roster sent four months ago.”
“Four months ago? Anything could have happened in four months.”
“I’m not going to lie. The Nikruk have acquired Death Beam technology and everyone on Earth is now in even more danger. But it’s the latest information. If they’ve managed to survive five years of war, hopefully they’ll manage another month.”
“What’s happening in a month?”
Terry hesitated. “I shouldn’t be telling you this but everyone will know in two days. We’re going on a full scale offensive to liberate Earth.”
Heera sat upright. “I’m going with you.”
Terry smiled. “Relax. We’re going to need all the help we can get. You’re going to get called up.”
“I need to see Bin’ja. He’ll know how to be most effective.”
“Our guys are talking to him.”
“He doesn’t trust anyone else!” she cried. Terry looked taken aback. “He only trusts me” she said more quietly.
He looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded his head. “Okay. I’ll try and get you in soon but I can’t promise anything.”
“Thank you.”
“One last thing I wanted to talk to you about. I talked to Fatima the other day.”
“About what?”
He sighed and scratched his head as if embarrassed. “About how it isn’t working between us. About how I love someone else. She took it surprisingly well, as if she expected it. Whoever gets her is a truly lucky man.”
Heera didn’t say anything and merely looked through him with glazed eyes. He didn’t know exactly what kind of reaction he had expected when he said this but staying as still as a statue certainly wasn’t it. Had he offended her with his childishly incompetent effort to open a path to their togetherness? A vent of abashment coupled with a spell of indignation came over him. He realized that he had floundered when Heera failed to give him any indication of how she felt. Weak and bitter with disappointment, he got up and hesitated as to whether he should touch her shoulder affectionately before leaving. He decided against it and slowly walked silently towards the door.
The unanticipated contact had him almost fall over on his face. Heera had run up to him and put her arms around his waist and her cheek on his broad back. He felt tears gratitude welling up as he clasped her hands with his.
Heera’s voice was trembling with emotion. “I love you, Terry. I always will.”
He turned around and kissed her. Their lips and tongues intermingled as each one savoured every second of what both of them had waited for years.
“I love you too, Heera” said Terry when their lips finally parted. “I love you so much.”
Chapter 22: Burden
‘Sometimes, my best moments are when I contemplate my own death.’ - Terry Southend, personal memoir, year 2915
Grinya looked down at the new wrinkles that had formed on his fingers following the Branialia, the ceremony that had poured into his existence the knowledge of the universe. It had taken him five whole days to fully recover from the experience which was still the fastest among the Five due to his youth. Nine days, equivalent to about fifteen Earth-days, he calculated, has passed and it was the first meeting of the Five to discuss what they had observed.
“I have never seen humanity in such a state” said Primba. It had been his fourth Branialia. He had experienced the galaxy over a course of thirty years, which added up to more than one hundred and twenty Earth years. He had seen Renden generations come and go.
“I am tempted to agree” said Vahsoo, the eldest of the Five. “The level of destruction within the galaxy is unprecedented though few can disagree that our cousins, the humans, have warranted it for a while.”
“I am sorry that this had to be Grinya’s first ceremony. What a shock it must be to see so much death for the first time” said Hinroo.
Grinya couldn’t help but slightly resent Hinroo’s overbearing manner of speech; he had now experienced Branialia like all of them. The knowledge did not accumulate but instead painted a new reality each time. The others no longer knew more than him and hence, no longer had to treat him as an inexperienced newcomer. “I saw the universe as it is. That’s all that matters” he replied simply.
“I am not sure the Forebears ever predicted this” said Hansha, the middle member of the Five.
“I’m sure they did” rebutted Grinya. Hansha looked slightly taken aback. “This is exactly why they came to our galaxy. It’s happening all again.”
“But this time, some of the fault lies with the actions of the Forebears” said Vahsoo. The others nodded their heads in agreement.
“And it is our duty to correct the past deeds of the Forebears” said Grinya.
No one opened their mouths but Grinya could almost feel a collective gasp arise. What he had just said was close to blasphemy.
“That is an interesting proposition” said Primba in a tone that suggested otherwise.
“Don’t patronise me, Primba” growled Grinya. “The inaction of the Forebears and our own ancestors has come to this.”
Hinroo touched his forearm. “We foresaw this quality in the humans…”
“I’m not talking about the humans” he snapped. “I’m talking about the devices that the Forebears threw out into our galaxy and then neglected.
“What are you suggesting?” said Vahsoo.
“I’m saying that the Rendens are no better or worse than the Forebears who we so idolise. Yes, they nearly brought us to extinction, and yes, the Forebears saved us. But the Forebears are still interfering with aff
airs in our galaxy even in their graves.”
“But the Rendens are so evil” gasped Hinroo. “Do you have any idea what they…”
“I am just as aware as you are” interrupted Grinya. “Monuments of the death and destruction they caused litter the galaxy.”
He felt sorry for being so harsh to Hinroo who had helped and guided him in his initial rites to become a member of the Five. But what was the point of millennia of wisdom if their sole action was inaction? He sympathised deeply with the Forebears’ decision to isolate themselves against the temptation of domination. But could that honourable path be justified in the face of the extermination of entire populations?
Grinya knew that he was walking a fine line. The Forebears had gone to civil war nearly forty thousand years ago over the positioning of that ‘line’; would they nudge and guide the galaxy into peace and prosperity or would they stand by as silent watchers? Those who had fought, and eventually won, for the latter position had believed the urge to become rulers, however benevolent, would have been too strong. To them, that was a right that they clearly did not have. What he was saying sounded eerily like the former camp’s ideas that had since been considered close to heresy.
The post-Branialia meeting of the Five ended in indecision but he was confident that he had forced them to think about their choices. The world gifted to them by the Forebears was remarkably like Earth, he had been told. The green fields and trees dangling with fruit would have been more than at home on the Renden home planet. He walked through a field of waist-high grass punctuated with blue and yellow flowers. Small, four-legged orange uxeras buzzed effortlessly in the warm breeze, some sucking at the liquid nectar with their funnel-like snouts. Were these the creations of the Forebears or had they existed prior to their arrival to the galaxy?
Vahsoo, who had experienced her fifth and final Branialia, was following him and she soon caught up with his meandering. Her silver hair and high cheek bones gave her haughty look but he knew what a tender being she actually was.
“Have you come to dissuade me from my views, mother?” he said.
She chuckled. “I know how stubborn you are so I won’t even try, not yet. By the Forebears, you are so much like your father at that age. It pains me to see you suddenly aged after the ceremony.”
Grinya knew that his mother had been against his becoming a member of the Five though she had never voiced her opinion. His destiny was his alone to decide. “I think your hair has become even brighter after it. Other than that, it doesn’t seem to have had much effect on you” he remarked.
“Ah, but I was already old and droopy beforehand. I suppose nothing more could be done to make me look worse.” She laughed throatily. “My duties as the most senior member of the Five will be over in a year. Primba will take over. I just hope you don’t clash with him at every turn.”
“The Branialia didn’t just give me knowledge about the universe, you know. I’ll figure out how to handle him.” He had thought that the ceremony would give him the knowledge of the galaxy; little did he expect to come to know all the little secrets of everyone he had ever known and loved.
“It’s a terrible burden” she said.
He nodded. Tears started to well in his eyes. “You’re going to die.”
She didn’t answer. But he knew her genetic disposition could no longer be held together. She should have died in her infancy but the magic of the Forebears’ technology had kept her alive all this time. He knew now how she had worried when she had given birth to him as to whether he carried the same genetic scars. Luckily, he didn’t.
He turned towards her and buried his face in her chest as he had done so as a young boy. Knowledge was a terrible burden.
Chapter 23: Mission to the Unknown
‘The president of the Peace Alliance is really a result of power-brokering between the governments of the two large internal blocs: one centred in Beirut and the other in Delhi. Real power is held by the two elected leaders of the blocs together with leaders of the smaller blocs of Jerusalem, Colombo, Tehran, etc oscillating between the two. The lack of concentration of power results in political dithering and a weak diplomatic voice disproportionate to the Peace Alliance's power and population.’ - Terry Southend,
Terry walked through the dimly-lit corridors accompanied by Agent Camelia Shin. A creeping feeling of insecurity had finally manifested itself. How had this happened? The incomplete records, the different data formats among the various elements that comprised United Terra had all contributed. Still, the Shadow had breached their security far too easily. How many more of them lurked among the hundreds of thousands of U.T. personnel?
“She loves him” said Agent Shin taking Terry by surprise. Had this seemingly emotionless woman just talked about love?
“What?” he asked without thinking.
“Major Schmitt. She’s in love with him.”
Terry thought back to the debriefing with the tactical team leader who had stunned the Shadow. To him she had seemed composed and professional throughout the session. Was it the Phantom training that gave Shin the ability to read that emotion or just a woman’s sixth sense?
Could she tell how happy he really was under his anxious, professional façade? His first night with Heera in nearly five years had been a fumbling, slightly embarrassing affair. That couldn’t get in the way of sheer pleasure and happiness at finally being reunited with her, both physically and emotionally. When he had awoken that morning, he could hardly believe that she was really lying beside him. Had her sleep been as blissful as his?
He shook the thought from his head and continued to walk, barely suppressing a smile of satisfaction. He hoped that his elated emotional state would not be too obvious to Agent Shin but he was sure that she had already noticed. Strict, cold professionalism was vital in his dealings with the Shadow.
Captain Qin Huei of the Special Intelligence and Defence Organisation of the New Han Empire was sitting with his hands tied in front of him with strands of carbon. His legs were also tied to the chair on which he was seated. No other furniture was permitted in the bare room flooded with white light. He was wearing an orange bio-rubber suit that could remotely be rendered stiff through electrical impulses if the prisoner did anything out of the ordinary. If Terry sent a signal through the Web-Com, the Shadow would become completely immobile.
Yet no precaution could be too much with the man sitting in front of him. Not only was he a Shadow, he was perhaps the most dangerous man in the Yinhexi. He stared up with cold, emotionless eyes as if his rest had been rudely disturbed.
“Captain Qin Huei, my name is Colonel Terry Southend…”
“Formerly of the Atlantic Alliance Marine Corps. Almost single-handedly took out a ship full of Bahalar pirates near Mata Khinlu, caught and arrested the notorious Ewani warlord, Branog of Brawa, and led a platoon of marines to rescue a high-ranking governor from the clutches of Shinjakren terrorists. Son of Daniel and Susan Southend, the former passed away eight years ago in a high-speed glider accident. I’ve heard much about you.”
“And I now know a lot about you, too. You’ve been posing as Captain Derek Wurth for the last decade. Before that you were responsible for the assassination of several high-ranking officials and religious representatives of the Atlantic Alliance, notably Prime Minister Senhauser and Archbishop Nielsen. As Derek Wurth, you graduated Boston University with a degree in chemistry and then went to officer training for the navy.”
The Shadow smiled. “So you know much about me. Then you must know why I wanted to kill Han Fann.”
“Because you think that he killed your father.”
He laughed heartily as if being told a hilarious joke. When he stopped, his face was contorted with rage. “You think I care for the death of a man who abandoned me to the Shadow Program when I was five years old? I barely knew that son of a bitch. Everybody seemed to love and respect him but to me, he was a stranger.”
“Then why?”
“Because the princeling killed the Emperor. He betrayed his roots, his bloodline, his responsibility as a member of the Imperial Family. Anyone who threatens the glory of the New Han Empire must die, and he has committed the lowest form of treason.”
Terry was caught slightly off guard. He had assumed that personal vendetta had been the prime motivation and had prepared a scenario to get his cooperation by persuading him that Han Xiao, Fann’s elder half-brother, had in fact been the killer. Qin’s blind, zealous patriotism would be much, much harder to reason with.
“Are you working on Minister Bo’s orders?”
The Shadow didn’t answer immediately and instead seemed to chew on Terry’s words with disgust. “No” he said simply.
“So you are here to judge a member of the Imperial Family on your own initiative, not because he killed your father but because he betrayed his family and the Empire?”
“I would say you had daddy issues” said Agent Shin coolly.
Qin’s muscles tensed up in anger at the cynical comment. “Shut up, Phantom bitch.”
“He’s lying” she remarked flatly.
“By telling you to shut up?” said Terry.
“He wanted to tell me that my remark was false but that would seem too futile and weak. So he told me to shut up as an equally lame denial.”
“Unlike your vile people, the Chinese still have a shred of respect for our parents” said Qin.
“Did you respect your father?” said Terry.
“Without a doubt.”
“Did you love him?”
