by M J Dees
“Thank you, Kellen.”
From Ozli's position at the junction in the corridor, he could see Kellen leave. He waited for a moment until he was sure Kader had gone before moving to the entrance of the President's control room where, unseen, he could hear the President talking to someone.
“My crime is rotten,” said the President. “It smells all the way to the Better Place. The murder of my kind. There is no way to make this right, not while I am the president.”
Ozli could see no-one else in the room. He assumed that the President must have been communicating with another in a different room, or different planet.
“My office and my union,” the President continued. “Can I make things right and still hold these positions? This galaxy is full of evil ways and rich criminals who avoid justice and reap the profits of their crimes by bribing their way, but they cannot do that in the better place. There is no deceit there, all must tell the truth about what they have done. I am trapped.”
Ozli could see the President was alone and unaware that he was being observed. This seemed the perfect moment for Ozli to exact his revenge and send the President to the better place. He thought it just that as the President killed his father, he should be the one to kill the President.
‘It’s only right,’ thought Ozli. ‘To kill him while he is repenting of his actions.’
A weapon emerged from the end of Ozli’s vehicle, and he pointed it at the President. He held it there for a moment, waiting for the best shot.
He waited.
And waited.
Ozli retracted the weapon back into his vehicle.
‘I cannot do it while he is making peace with the better place,’ thought Ozli. ‘He will go straight to the other side and reap the benefits of that other world. I must do it when he himself is doing terrible deeds so that when he arrives in the better place, the guardian will punish him and will not allow him in the great hall of that other world. I must find him in a moment that has no hope of salvation, so that he falls down into the bowels of the worse place.’
Ozli backed carefully away from the entrance and left.
“I talk of the better place,” said the President. “But my thoughts remain here on Future. Words without thoughts never go to the better place.”
CHAPTER 7: THE SIGHTLESS SPACEMAN
Kellen Kader entered the private rooms of Ozli’s mother.
“Ozli will come soon,” said Kellen. “Make sure you deal firmly and speak severely with him. Tell him his games have been too much for others to bear but that you have shielded him from criticism. I hear him coming.”
“I will talk to him, don’t you worry,” said Ozli’s mother. “Go, he is almost here.”
“I will hide myself like the blind spaceman of the legends who hid and discovered the truth.”
“Yes, and we all know what happened to him.”
Kader hid himself just in time before Ozli entered.
“What is the matter, my co-begetter?” said Ozli, approaching his mother.
“Ozli, you have offended the memory of your begetter.”
“You have offended the memory of my begetter.”
“You know that is not true.”
“You know that it is.”
“How?”
“You do not know?”
“Have you forgotten who I am?”
“No, you are the President’s partner, you have a union with my begetter’s begetter’s begotton and I wish you were not my co-begetter.”
“Then I will call someone to correct you.”
“Stay here, you are going nowhere. You will not go until you see who I really am and what I am capable of.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“What’s happening?” shouted Kellen Kader from his hiding place.
Ozli spun his vehicle round and fired in the noise's direction.
"You've shattered my bioshield," screamed Kellen. "I'm diffusing."
"What have you done?" shrieked Ozli's mother.
"I don't know," said Ozli. "Is it the President?"
"Oh, what have you done, Ozli?"
"What have I done? Almost as bad as killing a president and then having a union with his partner."
"As killing a President?"
"That's what I said."
Ozli went to see who he had shot.
"You stupid meddling fool," said Ozli, seeing the broken vehicle of Kellen Kader. "I thought you were the president."
"What makes you think you can speak with me so rudely?" Ozli's mother asked him.
"You act so innocent," said Ozli. "But your union vows are like a gambler's promises. The guardians of the better place must be blushing."
"At what? What am I supposed to have done, Ozli?"
"Remember, my begetter? He commanded with grace. He was your partner. Now look, your partner, dealing with his co-begotton. Can’t you see? What is your interest in him? I’m not doubting you have emotions, but can your desire not tell good from bad? He has cheated you. Could you sense nothing? How could you be so stupid? Are you not ashamed?”
“Don’t talk anymore, Ozli,” his mother asked. “You make me feel stained.”
“Because being in a corrupt union is okay?”
“Stop it, Ozli. Your words hurt. Stop it.”
“A murderer, a thief who stole the presidency.”
“Stop it!”
“Hang on a minute,” said Ozli. “I’m getting a message. Sevan?”
“Ozli, I’m on the Mastery of the Stars,” said Sevan. “Ron has picked up the signal again. There’s a message coming through.”
“Show me.”
“Do not forget my message,” Ozli watched the flickering image say. “The truth may amaze my partner. You must speak with her.”
“How are you?” Ozli asked his mother.
“How are you, Ozli?” she replied. “You seem empty, the way you talk without feeling. Like the blind spaceman woken for battle. Please calm yourself, Ozli.”
“Don’t talk to me of myths and legends like the blind spaceman. I have a message here that I will share with you. See the pale image. Watch and you will understand why I must have my revenge.”
“What are you talking about, Ozli?”
“Can you not see the message?”
“No, Ozli. I see nothing.”
“Can you not hear anything?”
“Only you talking to me.”
“I’ve shared it with you, the message from my begetter.”
The message crackled and vanished.
“You are imagining things, Ozli.” said his mother.
“Imagining things? I am as well balanced as you. I am not imagining things. Admit what you have done wrong, don’t make matters worse.”
“Ozli, you make me very sad.”
“Do not go to the President,” said Ozli. “Pretend to be pure, even if you are not. Stay away from him. I must dispose of Kellen. Goodbye for now, my co-begetter. We must be cruel to be kind. Unpleasant things are beginning, but the worse lies ahead.”
“Oh, Ozli, what am I supposed to do?”
“Do not go to the President. Do not tell him anything. Do not let him know that I am not mad, but only pretending to be mad. Just like the fable of the blind spacemen who spied on his enemies only to meet his own death.”
“I wouldn’t know what to say, even if I spoke with him.”
“I must leave Future, you know that.”
“I heard there was a plan to send you to Tomorrow. Have they agreed to it?”
“The President has sent instructions to Tafazolli and de Wijs whom I trust only as far as I can throw them. They carry the orders. I will go along with them and allow them to dig their own graves, they will find themselves out-plotted. I will drag Kellen into the next room. Goodbye, my co-begetter.”
Ozli dragged Kellen’s vehicle out of its hiding place and into another room.
He had barely cleared the room when the President entered with Tafazolli and de Wijs.
“Please, would you give us a moment?” she asked Tafazolli and de Wijs, who left as she requested.
“What have I seen!”
“What? How is Ozli?”
“He is mad. In a frenzied state of mind, he killed.”
“What? Who?”
“Kellen, who was hiding.”
“It could have been me. His continued freedom is a danger to us all, to you, to us, to everyone. How should we respond to this killing? Kellen’s murder could be blamed on us. We need to keep this quiet. Ozli is mad, and yet our love for him was so great we did not know what was the correct thing to do. Where has he gone?”
“To dispose of Kellen and his vehicle.”
“Let us go, my partner. It is getting late. I have plans to send Ozli away and this terrible thing he has done we must just accept,” the President turned to the door. “de Wijs!”
De Wijs and Tafazolli re-entered the room.
“Get some help,” ordered the President. “Ozli has killed Kellen Kader and has dragged him off somewhere. Go find him and humour him. Recover the body, please be quick.”
Tafazolli and de Wijs left the room.
“Come on, my partner,” said the President to Ozli’s mother. “Let us consult our advisers and let them know what we intend to do and what he has done so we might not be accused of this terrible murder. Come on, let us go, I am very upset.”
*
Tafazolli and deWijs found Ozli in a corridor of the presidential palace.
“What have you done with Kellen?” asked Tafazolli.
“Sent him to the Better Place,” said Ozli.
“Tell us where he is so we can take him to hold the proper ceremonies.”
“Don’t believe it.”
“Believe what?”
“That I can talk to you and not myself. To be questioned by a Kenzek and me next in line for the presidency.”
“You think I am a Kenzek?”
“Yes, I do, soaking up the President’s goodwill, his rewards, his influence. He keeps such individuals to be disposed of last. When he’s taken what he needs from you, he will squeeze you like a Kenzek and use you all up.”
“I don’t understand you, Ozli.”
“Good.”
“Ozli, you must tell us where Kellen is and come with us to see the President.”
“Kellen is with the President, but the President is not with Kellen, the President is a thing...”
“A thing?”
“Of nothing, bring him to me.”
*
The President was alone in his control room.
“I have sent them to find Ozli and return with what remains of Kader,” said the President to the communications control panel. “It is too dangerous to leave him on the loose, we need to put tight restraints on him. He is popular among the idiotic masses, for some reason completely unknown to me, and because of that his punishment would be noted but not his offence. Therefore, his exile must appear planned, we solve desperate problems with desperate solutions, or we do not solve them at all.”
Tafazolli entered.
“What has happened?” the President asked him, turning off the communications panel.
“He will not tell us what he has done with Kellen Kader,” said Tafazolli.
“Where is he?”
“He is being guarded outside. I came to ask what you wanted us to do.”
“Bring him here.”
Tafazolli left and returned a moment later with de Wijs, Ozli and two mechanical bowmen.
“Ozli, what have you done with Kellen?” asked the President.
“Getting air.”
“Getting air? Where?”
“Not so much that he is getting air, more that the air is getting him. He is blowing on the wind. We avoid the wind at all costs, only to let it carry us off to the better place, in the end.”
“That is sadly true.”
“We use the air all our lives.”
“What do you mean?”
“We use it for ventilation to manufacture the elements we consume, and, in the end, it consumes us.”
“Where is Kellen?”
“In the better place, send someone there to check. If they don’t find him there, go to the worse place yourself. But if you don’t find him there, you might smell him in the corridors to the reception.”
“Find him there,” the President ordered the bowmen.
“The President won’t go anywhere till you come back,” Ozli told them.
“Ozli,” said the President. “We are genuinely concerned about what you have done and think it would be a good idea if we got you away from Future as quickly as possible. Prepare yourself, your ship is ready to catapult to Tomorrow and a team is assembled and ready, waiting for you there.”
“To Tomorrow?”
“Yes, Ozli.”
“Good.”
“So, you knew of our intention to send you to Tomorrow?”
“I had intelligence of that. So, onto Tomorrow. Goodbye my co-begetter,” he said in the general direction of where he thought his mother might be.
“Your step-begetter, you mean, don’t you?” said the President, thinking Ozli was referring to him.”
“My co-begetter,” said Ozli. “Let’s go to Tomorrow.”
Ozli left the room.
“Follow him,” said the President to Tafazolli and DeWijs. “Stay close. Make sure he leaves quickly. He should catapult today. I settled everything that is connected with the affair. Hurry.”
Tafazolli and de Wijs did as the President asked and left.
The President turned back to his communications panel and recorded another message.
“If our relationship means anything to you, our agreement, do not be indifferent in this matter. Honour our agreement and ensure that you dispose of Ozli. Do it on Tomorrow. He has become like a disease or a nagging pain, and you can offer the cure. I cannot move on until I know that it is done.”
*
As Ozli entered the hangar, followed by Tafazolli and de Wijs, he saw a squadron of military ships with unfamiliar markings parked in the landing bay. He could see a senior commander talking to a subordinate on the gangplank of the largest vessel.
“Speak with the President,” the commander was saying. “Tell him that, with his permission, Akpom Chuba would like to take his forces through the Republic. You know the terms of the agreement and the meeting. If the President wishes to negotiate, I am happy to meet.”
“Yes sir,” said the subordinate.
“Go carefully.”
The commander disappeared back inside the vessel and the subordinate descended the gangplank on his way to the hangar exit where Ozli had overheard the conversation.
“Where are these ships from?” Ozli asked the subordinate as he drew near.
“They are from the Cheng-Huang Colony, in the outer regions.”
“What is their purpose?”
“We are crossing the Republic to the outer regions on the other side, to the Wreckage of the Arint on Inic B'Campa.”
“Who commands them?”
“Commander Akpom Chuba, the President knows him.”
“Are you planning to invade the Arint?”
“With no exaggeration,” said the subordinate. “We are trying to annex an insignificant part of the region that isn’t worth anything. There’s nothing there.”
“Then the Arint won’t defend it.”
“They will, it already has a garrison of Arint troops there.”
“And your people are willing to die over such a trivial matter? Thank you for your time.”
“You are welcome,” said the subordinate as he left.
CHAPTER 8: BATTLE IN THE CAVES
Ozli entered the Mastery of the Stars, followed by Tafazolli and deWijs. He found Ay-ttho and Sevan waiting on the bridge.
“I can’t believe they talked you into this mission,” he
said.
“They’re paying us, we need the credits,” said Ay-ttho. “With the amount they are giving us we should have enough for the journey back home to The Doomed Planet.”
“Good to see you too, Ozli,” said Sevan.
“How’s Tori?” asked Ozli.
“He’s doing fine,” said Ay-ttho. “He’s resting.”
“Are we leaving soon?” asked Tafazolli.
“I’d like to introduce you to Tafazolli and de Wijs. They have been friends of mine for as long as I can remember. The President has asked them to escort me to Tomorrow. He has given them special orders.”
“Come with me,” Ay-ttho gestured to the two friends. “I’ll show you the rooms you can use as private quarters in case you need somewhere to relax.”
Tafazolli and de Wijs reluctantly followed Ay-ttho, leaving Ozli and Sevan alone on the bridge.
“Everything seems to be going wrong, Sevan,” Ozli complained. “But it makes me want to take revenge more than ever. They should give a being of my intellect more important things to do, and yet I don’t seem to be able to get around to avenging my father’s death. Am I afraid? Or maybe I am trying to plan everything in too much detail. My father is dead, and my uncle has dishonoured my mother and I can’t do anything while a squadron out there is about to go to their deaths and for what? For a bit of territory in the outer regions.”
*
“I will not speak to her,” said Ozli’s mother.
“But she is very persistent,” said an attendant. “Almost mad.”
“What does she want?”
“She talks about her father, Kellen Kader, a lot. She has heard rumours of things being covered up. She gets furious at paltry things. Her speech is very confused, and it takes a while to understand what she means. It would be good to speak to her before she spreads the rumours far and wide.”
“Let her come in then,” she said to the attendant. “Each slight matter seems to lead to a disaster.”
The attendant left and a moment later re-entered with Zarah.
“Where is the President’s partner,” she said as she entered.
“How are you, Zarah?,” Ozli’s mother asked.
“How should I know you?” Zarah sang. “By your golden vehicle, with its crystal dome.”