The World's Game

by Jacobo Izquierdo

  The midarian leader got off the craft with decision. Without stopping, he went directly to the control room. For a great part of his life, that place had been his game room. His private overflow channel. The place where he had vented the anger accumulated over some many years.

  Beiler, aware of the situation that could have been being experienced in Racot, decided to contact Palac.

  “What are you saying? But how is it possible that he’s still alive?” Cabolun shouted desperately.

  “What’s going on?” Palac asked barging in the room along with the captain.

  “This… this dirty racot refuses to die. I don’t understand how he can still be alive!” He exclaimed punching the stone seat that was supporting him with all his might.

  “Why do you want to kill him?”

  “He’s a piromeiso with a very high intellectual power. I’ve followed him since he was born, as well as I did with the rest of the privileges ones.”

  The novice sat beside his father and started to watch some of the nearby monitors. All of them showed terrifying images: fires, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes. Destruction and more destruction…

  “One of the boards written by my grandfather showed his will of introducing piromeisos from time to time. Why do you want to destroy them?”

  “They’re our worst enemy,” he answered sharply. “These beings are intellectually brilliant and the evolution Racot is experimenting can get us in serious trouble. They shot down our control crafts. They prevent the diseases we introduce to control the population from developing and they eradicate them. They have formed colonies on some planets and, what is worse, every passing day they are more intelligent.”

  Cabolun’s words resounded in the control room and they expanded along the corridors of the Sinz Palace. The hate he felt for planet Racot seemed to have no end.

  “Sir,” one of the scientists, who was sitting in front of one of the monitors, said “I’m sorry to meddle. If you allow me to make one comment…”

  “I hope it’s important. No one dares interrupt me! NO ONE!” He shouted nailing his huge eyes in him.

  The scientist seemed to have shrunk. His three-meter and a half tall body seemed to have sunk in the footstool.

  “Piromeisos are immortal,” the scientist said crestfallen. “Maybe that one in particular has not fulfilled his mission yet. That’s why you can’t destroy him.”

  The midarian leader stared at the scientist for some seconds. The reaction was difficult to predict. A second punch shook the seat once again.

  “You’re right!” Cabolun exclaimed. “This dirty piromeiso has not fulfilled his aim yet, that’s why he refuses to die. Soon after he was born, I tried unsuccessfully to kill him. However, I managed to leave him without his parents,” he said celebrating his action. “For a while, I forgot about him and I focused my efforts in destroying other piromeisos scattered all over the planet. Years later, I searched him again on the zac, and I found him along with an older racot. My surprised couldn’t have been bigger when I checked his characteristics and I saw that he was a piromeiso as well. I couldn’t believe it, two of them in the same place. The plan was perfect. I removed the oxygen from the house hoping them to die choked, but only one of them died.”

  “But… my grandfather’s scriptures talked about their importance to the planet’s good functioning.”

  “You have no idea!” He shouted. “If they find the transport cabin, they could attack us.”

  “Can’t you forget about that planet and focus on ours?” Beiler asked mingling himself in the conversation.

  “Shut up!” He ordered.

  “And you…” he said pointing to Palac “…will have to pick one of the screens and help me destroy them.”

  “No!” He shouted. “I’m not like you. I’m like my grandfather.”

  “You have no idea what my father was like,” he said diverting his gaze from his son.

  “An authentic midarian who lived to do good,” Beiler said.

  Cabolun clenched his fists and got up. He walked some meters all over the circular room observing each of the monitors until he finally stopped in front of one of them. A smack was enough to set aside the scientist who was taking custody of it. The image showed a vast ocean surrounded by small isles. Hastily, he started moving across the map until he spotted a specific area. Wantonly, he approached one of his fingers to the screen and hit it violently. A huge extension of water was moved, provoking a tremendous tsunami. Happy with the result, he got up again and stared at the captain.

  “Would an authentic midarian carry out an experiment on an inhabited planet just to quench his boredom?” He asked with a quieter tone. “It was because of his fault that wars, catastrophes and starvation occurred causing the death of our pilots. Is that your idea of an authentic midarian?”

  “And you… are you one?” Palac asked. “What happened to Grias?”

  Chapter 42

  The old man looked at him for an instant. Josef was impatient. He had the feeling that that numeration could be the key for many of the enigmas and mysteries that had been an authentic headache for hundreds of investigators around the world over centuries.

  “I beg your pardon?” Henry asked with his right hand leaning on his chin.

  “According to the book, when my grandmother died, he became obsessed. The only thing he cared at all was meeting her again.”

  The old man leant forward.

  “In order to achieve that, he got in touch with a medium and went to several purification sessions. In all of them, when he asked where such spirits were, so to speak, he got a numeric answer. Such answer was used as the password to protect the investigation he carried out throughout his life.”

  “Do you mean the chest?”

  Josef nodded.

  “What’s that numeration?”

  The librarian rolled his sleeve up showing his tattooed skin. Henry took his arm and started to explore it in detail.

  2

  9

  5

  8

  4

  4

  3

  1

  8

  3

  JOSEF

  “Some years ago…” the old man got up and started to walk all over the room “Mike showed me a numbering series. I don’t remember if it was that one, but it’s possible that it’s the same one.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “He asked me to search in the planetary register if it existed any celestial body whose coordinates coincided with such number. In those times, telescopes were quite rudimentary and we didn’t find any coincidence. With nowadays technology, the field of search has broadened considerably and the list of planets found has multiples by one thousand in the latest twenty years. If you want…”

  Henry sat on the sofa again and picked a small keyboard. He pressed one of the buttons and the screen switched on. With an almost masterful dexterity, he started pressing until he reached the desired spot.

  “Here it is!” He exclaimed smiling.

  A searching engine had the location of all the planets found until then stored. Without vacillation, the old man typed one by one the ten digits.

  2958443183

  Thirty seconds later, the search stopped and gave a result.

  Cauiperos14

  “Cauiperos14!” Josef shouted.

  Discovered in the year 2064 in an observatory on the Canary Islands, Spain, Cauiperos14 was a million times bigger than the Earth and was at eight hundred light years of distance.

  “Eight hundred light years!” He said disappointed.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Very simple,” Henry answered. He picked a piece of paper and started to write data on it. “Look… here it’s perfectly summarized.”

  A (light 300000 km/s)

  1 day = 86400 seconds

  B (1 year = 31536000 seconds)

  C (800 light years)

  AxBxC = 300000 x 31536000 x 800

  “Do the calcu
lation and the obtained result will show you the distance in kilometers that separates us from that planet.”

  Josef picked the keyboard and started to type the data on the calculator. The result shown on the screen was amazing.

  7568640000000000

  “I had never seen such a long number before!” He exclaimed. “The distance is unconquerable, right?”

  “That’s it. With nowadays crafts…” the old man made a pause and started to write numbers on the piece of paper “it would take us three million years to get there.”

  “And what if that were the planet where we go to when we die?”

  “Forget about that,” he said shaking his head. “If there’s something life has taught me is that when we die everything is over. You end up getting rotten in a wooden box and over time, everything worthwhile that you have done in your life is forgotten,” the tears started to glitter in his tired eyes. “That will be my destiny.”

  “Don’t say that,” he said with mercy.

  “Josef… let me tell you something. Your grandmother’s death changed Mike’s behavior completely. He even went mad. He refused to accept the reality and…”

  “What do you mean?” Josef interrupted.

  “Your grandfather reached to the point of bearing the idea of finishing with his life prematurely to contact her. He was convinced that they would meet together again that way. It was precisely when he thought it was time to carry out his plan that you were born.”

  The librarian showed a slight smile.

  “You changed his life! The terrible tragedy of your parents was decisive for him to take the most important decision in his life.” He stopped for an instant and stared at him. “Your grandfather… left everything behind for you.”

  Henry got up and left the room saying no word at all. «What does he mean he left everything behind for me?» Some photographs hanging from the wall called his attention. One of them showed a nice image of a mother holding her daughter in the city of New Mars, on Mars. Both of them were wearing special suits to cope with the extreme conditions of the planet.

  “What did your grandfather tell you about his early retirement?” Henry said barging in the room. He was holding several photographs in his hands.

  “He told me that NASA that decided to give him an early retirement due to his successful mission.”

  The old man sat down again and showed him the photos he had. The first one showed Mike and Henry receiving an award from the hands of the president of the United States. The second one, showed his grandfather’s silhouette watching a spectacular perspective of the Earth through one of the windows of the spaceship.

  He was offered the early retirement, but he rejected it at the beginning. Later on, conditioned by the death of your parents, he decided to voluntarily apply for it.

  On the third photograph, Mike appeared in front of the controls of the spaceship which too, him to Uranus. It was a complex framework of buttons and commands whose control was within reach of very few people.

  “That means that…”

  “Your grandfather was a vocational astronaut,” he said interrupting him, “the space the unknown fascinated him. That was undeniable.”

  Henry picked the fourth picture and gave it to him. On it Josef and his grandfather appeared looking through each one’s telescopes.

  “If I hadn’t been born… he would have continued with his career as an astronaut,” he said troubled.

  “You haven’t understood me,” the old man answered shaking his head. “No celestial body gave him more happiness than you. Showing you how wonderful life is and everything it has to teach became his biggest challenge. If he confided you the investigation he was carrying out, it was because he was convinced that you would be capable of finishing it some day.”

  Chapter 43

  Some of the scientists that were in the control room left their responsibilities momentarily and turned around. The scene they were witnessing was totally atypical. Never before someone had dared question Cabolun. That situation was going to change the future of Mida forever.

  “Grias committed suicide,” he answered crestfallen. “So did my father.”

  For a moment, it looked as if the midarian leader were showing a hint of regret.

  “It’s over!” Palac shouted defiantly. “I know the whole truth.”

  “What truth?” He asked getting close to his son.

  “My grandfather was murdered because of you! You occupied the body of one of the twelve racots that were accompanying him to manipulate the rest. You sabotaged Beiler’s craft to prevent him from rescuing him. You disobeyed the rules of Mida using the machine of life.”

  Cabolun was very close to him, unmoved. Nothing of what he was hearing seemed to affect him at all. «The moment has come.»

  “You murdered all the believers who refused to succumb. Not even Grias and his team could escape your evilness. All of them, as good midarians, preferred dying before becoming traitors. You murdered the creator of all our technology, of our ultrasonic crafts, of the machine of life, of our suits and protection helmets; he who managed to modify our bodies suppressing all vital functions. You condemned Mida to stop evolving!” He exclaimed raising his arms. “The new scientists don’t have anyone to teach them the basis to become good investigators. They’ve been trying to unblock the parameters Grias blocked for two thousand years, but they haven’t been able to achieve it. Last but not least,” he said stepping back at his father’s advance, “you added two more boards to the eight my grandfather had created so that you could distort my opinion on him.”

  “Have you finished?”

  The novice stepped back until he bumped into one of the footstools and nodded. «I’m going to die.» He thought, aware of the bomb he had just activated.

  “To begin with, I’ll tell you that my father’s death wasn’t a coincidence but it was something he obtained by himself due to his laziness. From the moment I was born, I never saw the slightest interest in me. He spent almost all his time travelling to Racot or solving the problems detected in the zac. I remember when I was five million years old; most of the midarians my age already used their powers skillfully and they rays had nothing to envy to the ones thrown by the most experienced fighters. These ones shot me merciless. I felt unprotected. I wasn’t able to defend myself!” He shouted with frustration.

  “Look how he runs,” one of the midarians said after throwing a ray.

  “I’ll tell my father about this!” A young Cabolun shouted as he ran desperately.

  “Your father is too far away to defend you,” a second attacker said.

  “Suddenly, his body got petrified and he fell onto the ground.

  “I’ve already got him paralyzed!” Another chaser celebrated.

  That was the last attack suffered by the midarian leader. When the captain picked him up and took him to the recovery pyramid, he was agonizing. That memory increased his rage even more.

  “I was about to die!” He shouted when coming back from his dreaminess. “When my father arrived and I told him what had happened, he paid no attention to me. I demanded him once again to show me the way of defending myself, and still today I remember his answer. «That can wait, son. The Racot1 experiment hasn’t given the expected results.» I got terribly upset. That day I learnt that I was another one for my father. When he asked me to go with Beiler to planet Racot to launch the projectile, I accepted under the condition of learning the powers during the trip. That mission not only was it helpful to master all the skills but also it did make of me a cold, lonely and calculator being. The rage I felt for my father vanished for a while. In part it was thanks to the revenge I got on the attackers that almost finished with my life.”

  “What happened to them?” Palac asked trying to calm the fury that was approaching him.

  “Let’s say they disappeared leaving no trace at all. That wasn’t the only change. When I got back, my father showed more affectionate, he wanted to spend as much time as he could wit
h me and recover my trust.” Cabolun stopped. He looked at one of the monitors and continued. “For millions of years I went with him on every trip he made in search of gold and over the different planets of the galaxy. During that time, we were father and son, leader and apprentice again.”

  Beiler was looking at him with suspicion. He had never compared himself to his leader, but he knew that fighting him would not bring him any satisfactory results. «We’re condemned.»

  “He taught me everything I needed to know. He even took the time to help me master the speed and power of the ray,” his face darkened and luminous radiations started to flow out of his eyes. “Until one day Grias appeared saying he had finished developing the new evolved particles to implant on Racot. From that moment, we drifted apart again and I promise to take revenge on every being related to the project.”

  “Your father gave me the task of training you to become a great warrior; of giving you discipline and of making of you a great leader,” Beiler said. “You’ve turned into quite the opposite.”

  “Don’t you understand it?” Cabolun asked looking at both of them. “If Racot hadn’t existed, none of this would’ve happened!”

  “Has Yewut ever forbidden you to take part of the project?” The captain asked.

  The midarian leader did not answer.

  “You’re not precisely the best example of a good father,” Palac said. “Since I was born, you’ve spent most of the time here in this room, sitting in front of the…”

  “Shut up!” He shouted. “You’ve dared defying me and questioned the veracity of my words. You’ll pay your stupidity with your life!”

  Chapter 44

  Josef left Henry’s house after several hours of conversation. «Grandpa quitted his career as an astronaut because of me. I have to demonstrate his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.» That phrase was repeated over and over again on his mind on his way home. Without even taking off his coat, he closed the door and ran to his bedroom. He sat on the bed and opened the book very carefully on the page he had marked.