by Drew Cordell
I was greeted by a few dark green servant robots when I landed and was escorted inside to the parlor where Baroness Carly and Sir Arnold were waiting. They were both in their sixties, but looked good for their age. They both stood when they saw me and greeted me.
“Baron Ashton, welcome to our home,” the Baroness said, smiling and embracing me in a hug. I kissed her hand as tradition demanded and shook Arnold’s hand firmly.
“I’ve heard you’re quite the Elorium player, Baron,” Arnold said. “Perhaps we’ll play a couple hands after our conversation.”
“I’m afraid I didn’t bring a deck,” I replied.
“Well, I wouldn’t dare make you play with a deck you're unaccustomed to. Another time then, sir,” he said with a smile as he motioned for me to sit on the couch. “Anyone that can beat the Supreme Leader in a game would be quite the opponent.”
“Anything to drink, Baron?” Baroness Aera asked me, changing the subject.
“Coffee, if you have it, please,” I responded.
“Sugar, milk, or cream?” she asked.
“Black is perfect.”
A robot brought me the coffee in a small teacup; it smelled similar to the medium-strength brew I had in my house.
“I’m not quite sure how this works,” I admitted, blushing.
“Oh, there’s nothing to be worried about, sweetheart. Just ask us what’s on your mind,” Carly said, her face warm and kind.
“Well, I’m completely in love with Lady Dunn and would like to request your blessing in marriage,” I managed. Carly and Arnold burst into smiles despite my awkwardness.
“How do you know you love her?” Arnold asked me.
“Every moment I’m with her is a treasure. Her smile sends my heart racing every time I see it, I could stare into her eyes all day, and I can’t imagine my life without her.”
Arnold smiled and Carly clapped her hands in excitement while making a high pitched ‘oh’ sound. “That’s love if I’ve ever heard it, Arnie,” she said.
Arnold cringed at the mention of his nickname. I suppressed a smile at his expense and waited.
“You should hear the way Mary talks about you,” Carly continued, grabbing Arnold’s hand and squeezing it. “She’ll talk about you for hours, how handsome you are, how strong, how loving,” she crooned. I smiled and blushed at the praise. “She was so grateful when everything was fixed between you two. It’s a terrible thing what that terrorist did to you both. It hurt Mary on the inside as well, emotionally speaking,” Carly added.
Arnold gave a firm nod and grunt in agreement.
“I wasn’t blameless in my actions,” I said.
“She explained what happened to us, but everyone deserves a second chance and I haven’t seen her this happy in, well, ever,” Carly said. “I know you are both new to Olympus, but Mary is family, and I want to see her live a happy life.”
Arnold once again gave another grunt in agreement after considering the statement. “Very happy,” he added in his deep voice.
“Well, Baron Ashton, it is with humble sincerity that we give you our blessing to propose marriage to Lady Dunn, ward of House Aera,” Carly said as she scooped me up into a hug. I shook Arnold’s hand again, and we finished our drinks.
Seeing as though Bracken had set aside two hours for my meeting and it had taken only minutes, I decided to take Arnold up on the game of Elorium using his decks. Arnold rushed to a neighboring table and pulled out two decks from a polished wood chest with green metal accents. He cleared the beverages from the table and placed the holo board down and we began to play. Both of his decks were centered around House Aera, but they played very differently. One of the decks, a tempo deck he had called it, tried to establish control early on and snowball into the later ages of the game through the efficient use of cards. The other deck was very similar to Colton Adrihel’s deck and attempted to control what its opponent was trying to do while scoring in small increments. I decided to go with the tempo deck and we played four games, each winning two and deciding to make it best of five. We switched decks one more time and started the fifth and final game.
Just as we’d started the second age, Mary walked into the room wearing her bathrobe and jumped in shock when she saw me.
“Jake, I didn’t know you were coming over!” she exclaimed before laughing at her own reaction at seeing me.
“Sir Arnold wanted to play a few hands of Elorium,” I said. Mary gave a questioning smile, but nodded and grabbed some breakfast before sitting down to watch us play.
“I see where Mary gets her skills,” I said to Arnold. Her play style matched his almost exactly.
The elderly man beamed at the compliment. “She plays well, as do you, Baron. You two have a knack for this game. I’ve been playing for many years and you seem to have grasped things in months that took me years to learn,” he commented before grumbling about a bad play he declared he was forced to make.
“It’s surprising considering how bad Jake was at this card game we used to play in the Slums,” Mary said with a smile, scooping a fork of eggs into her mouth and washing it down with some juice.
“Mary, honey, we’re in Olympus now. Let’s not talk about that place,” Baroness Aera said, frowning.
“Sorry,” Mary said, giving a faint nod to the Baroness.
Though I didn’t want to admit it, Mary was better than me at Elorium. I was once again reminded at how good she was at Shift, the made-up game we used to play with the deck of cards she had owned. Sure there was luck involved, but Mary always seemed to make the best plays given her current constraints and excelled in skill-based card games such as this one. I ended up beating Arnold in the final game, but it was close. He took the loss well and thanked me for the games.
“So, did you hear about the new Paragon Thought?” I asked Mary as she was topping off my coffee after Arnold left.
“Yes, I read about it when I woke up before coming down here. Things sure are moving fast,” she commented.
“They are,” I replied.
“A Prolific no less. This ceremony will be interesting to say the least,” Mary mused.
Neither of us had actually spoken with a Prolific, but there was an obvious social gap between the citizens in Olympus with implants and those without. A Prolific becoming royalty would surely shake up the entire social structure.
“I’m curious to see how Adrihel will react, especially when it comes to Elorium,” Arnold called from across the room.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, a few years back Adrihel was playing Elorium with one of the Prolific and lost a best of five badly. He was slightly drunk at the time and was so angry he had the League of Elorium instate a special rule that prevents the Prolific from playing in sanctioned tournaments. The sub-clause of the rule stated they would have their own sanctioned league, but tensions in Elorium between non-Prolific and the Prolific have been high ever since,” he said, scratching his chin. “Of course, there is also another clause which says any royalty of Olympus are permitted to participate in sanctioned tournaments regardless of their ranked skill. It’s going to be quite the commotion if this new Baron takes up the game,” Arnold said with a laugh.
“Do the Prolific have an advantage in Elorium?” Mary asked.
“Well, they’re basically walking computers, so yeah. Those twitchy fellows think fast, but they’re so awkward.” He considered the words then giving another grunt of approval.
Mary was delighted to pour me another mug of coffee, running off toward the coffee to return the pot, her robe trailing behind her as she ran.
“Thank you, Mary,” I said as she returned, kissed me on the lips, and sat back down.
Arnold gave us a smile. “You two do make a wonderful couple,” he said, looking back and forth to the two of us.
Mary grinned, then wrapped me up in a hug. “I think I’ll keep him,” she said playfully as I tried to pry out of her grip in mock struggle.
We concluded the
morning meeting, and I left House Aera feeling elated. I had learned to appreciate all the carefree moments I could get as I knew how hard Infinitum could pull me back into reality. Having some more spare time, I decided to fly over to House Zaris to speak with Marwin about House Telson and how it would change things for us. Mary had some things to take care of at House Aera, but said she’d join us later before the event.
We still hadn’t talked in private since the night of the dinner party, but things were changing quickly now. Despite my unannounced arrival, Marwin greeted me with enthusiasm and offered me some coffee. After accepting the coffee, but refusing the shot of scotch, we started to talk.
“I think things are beginning to move quickly,” I said, taking a sip from my coffee and leaning back into the comfort of the large chair. “Any idea what information the new Paragon Thought brought to Infinitum?”
“I have no idea. We won’t know for a few days while we wait for the system to compile everything with the new node. We need to consider this could be a ploy by Infinitum,” he said.
“I think we may need to try to get things moving. I’m worried the Guild hasn’t tried to contact us in over a month,” I said. “We don’t even know if anyone in the Guild is still alive.”
“You’re right, but that’s a call we need to make in private. Since Infinitum doesn’t have another true physical form that we’re aware of yet, we might have some slack to break the rules of its game.” Marwin considered each of his words with care not to reveal any specifics.
“Hmm. We’ll need to get Mary in on this,” I said.
Thirty minutes later, Mary arrived in her transport ship and joined us in the living room. We walked down to the armory, sealed ourselves in, and entered the privacy of the bubble sphere.
“Now, it doesn’t matter what we say at this point because we’ve already broken the rules,” Marwin said before pulling out a bulky looking communicator device and punching in a code. “Champions of Liberty, this is Inquisitor Marwin Zaris. Confirmation alpha, gamma, seven, three, beta, Tiberius, Zeta,” he said. There was no response on the other side. “Damn. We’ll wait a second to see if they respond.”
“Infinitum can’t intercept that?” I asked with concern.
“No, it’s still encrypted and this device jumbles the encryption constantly. The bubble only blocks noise from escaping the inside, not signals.” There was nothing but silence from the communicator. “Well, we need to assume they’re busy. Or, the situation has depreciated further for them down there and we’re running out of time to come up with a plan.”
“Baron Telson probably spent a lot of time in the Absolute Knowledge facility, correct?” I asked.
“Oh yes. Probably most of his time since he got the implants, which would have been when he was around twelve.” Marwin gave me a questioning look.
“So he might know some of the more advanced workings of the project, like electrical, mechanical, and computer systems?” I asked.
“Probably not. He knows a lot more about how the Paragon Thoughts work, but we’d need a senior systems engineer to learn more about the mechanics. I know the basics as Inquisitor, but only the things that are mostly common knowledge up here. If Infinitum is going to lose, it’s going to drop all six reactors, or blow them up here and let nuclear fire rain down on the Mids and what’s left of the Slums,” Marwin said.
“Would we be able to speak with a senior system engineer?” Mary asked Marwin.
“They live in the facility. I don’t think Infinitum would take it well if we decided to pay them an unrequested visit. It’s not really an option,” Marwin said.
“Who else would have access to that information?” I asked.
“Adrihel, but it’s locked up pretty tight in his study which also acts as a safe room in case of emergency.”
“Would we be able to get this information without Infinitum knowing?” I asked.
Marwin looked puzzled, but then a thin smile formed on his face. “If the power were to go out during the party tonight, all of his robotic security would be disabled for a few minutes before a drone could be sent to broadcast the Omniscience Engine frequency to the robots. We could break into the study and access the physical data drives with all of the information long enough to make a copy.”
“And if the power goes out in his house completely it would lose connection to the Omniscience Engine frequency?” I asked.
“Yeah, it would give us a few minutes which should be more than enough time,” Marwin said.
“The guards can’t operate locally?”
“Well, they can, but if we pull it off right and disable the power backups before taking out the main power, the system wouldn’t have time to send out an emergency signal to put the guards in offline mode,” Marwin explained.
“I guess I don’t see how the signal would be disabled by this,” I said.
Marwin grinned. “Almost everything in Olympus is hardwired to the Omniscience Engine. The only thing with long-range receivers are the aircraft here. There has never been an attack like this before, and therefore Infinitum shouldn’t expect it. This could be our only shot, and it’s a damn good one.”
Mary nodded. “Could we pull it off?”
“Yes, but we’ll have to stage a terrorist attack,” Marwin said.
7 BARON TELSON
Marwin rigged an old radio communicator to a bundle of plastic explosives which would destroy the central power grid of House Adrihel and put the building on its emergency power reserves. When the power went offline, the remaining power reserves were supposed to keep the link to the Omniscience Engine running and prepare the office for lockdown. Since we were packing enough explosives to wipe out some of the extra emergency batteries, the power would be prioritized to lock down the study immediately and send out a distress signal to the Omniscience Engine which would deploy a fleet of Enforcers to secure the breach. That was the theory anyway. If everything went well, the explosives would shut down the robotic guards for a few precious minutes and give us the chance to secure the data.
Before the commencement, Marwin would rig the explosives and we would prepare for the main event. During the ceremony and right before Jared Telson was appointed as Baron Telson, we’d blow the charges and slip out during the chaos. We would wear modified light Nanotech enabled Nexweave under our formal attire, shrouding our identities during the attack when Infinitum would be blind and deaf for several minutes. Marwin believed that fusion torches and Hellfire Blades would suffice in getting the job done. Marwin had kept Infinitum’s blades, and they would go a long way in convincing everyone the attack was staged by the same terrorists responsible for the first attack, especially when we left them at the scene.
The plan was set into motion, and Mary and I traveled back to our houses to prepare for the evening, changing into the Nexweave before leaving Marwin’s armory. In theory, the devised plan seemed solid. Without security or surveillance, we’d have a good window of time to get the information we’d need to strike against Infinitum, information that Infinitum worked tirelessly to keep from us.
Bracken sat on the couch, busy on his datapad when I walked in. He looked up when he saw me, and I gave him a grin.
“Well? Tell me all about it,” he said, patting the cushion next to him and motioning for me to sit.
“I just asked to marry her and told them why I wanted to,” I said. “They asked a few questions, but I have their blessing.”
“Wonderful!” Bracken exclaimed, raising his hands in the air and smiling.
“I played a few games of Elorium with Arnold after the conversation because I had some extra time.”
“I figured as much. He’s quite the Elorium enthusiast.”
“Anyway, I suppose I’ll make preparations to propose to Mary in the coming weeks after all the commotion of Baron Telson settles down,” I said, content with my plan and trying not to think about the ceremony tonight and how nervous it made me.
“A fine idea, sir,” Bracken repli
ed, giving me a strong pat on the shoulder.
Marrying Mary would give us some extra safety while living in Olympus. By having her with me rather than at House Aera, we would feel safer. Mary had grown strong in her training, and her willpower and determination gave her resolve I struggled to match in the toughest of training sessions. Infinitum changed her the night of the attack, but she was still my Mary, the girl I fell in love years ago, first as a friend, then as something more. Mary and I had a bond that couldn’t be explained by simple words. When we were together, it felt like my life had purpose.
“Well, I’ve taken the liberty to speak with the Head Steward of House Adrihel and have arranged it so you will be seated next to House Aera and Lady Dunn for the dinner following the commencement ceremony,” Bracken said with a smile.
Bracken had no idea what we were planning for tonight. “Thank you, Bracken,” I managed and put on a smile as I tried to hide the creeping nerves that grew from within as the clock continued to tick forward.
There would be consequences for the attack we had planned. I wouldn’t allow Mary to get hurt again. Had she not been insistent in becoming an Inquisitor deputy, I would have done everything I could to stop her. I saw the spark in her eyes, the hungry flame of anger and purpose I felt all of those months ago after reading an Essay Concerning Human Understanding. She was angry just as I had been at the injustices done to her by a corrupt system. Mary decided that day she wouldn’t sit idly by while the world continued to go to hell; she decided she would be the change and damn how I admired her for it.