by David Bowles
“Some on this world believe a human isn’t a person unless they’ve had the vision. They also want us to believe that nothing outside of our minds can contribute to the creation of our souls. Being cowards, they won’t discuss the hypocrisy of allowing satorijin to create art and study the Grey Prison. For let’s be honest: in a typical Dominatu teyopan, how many teyopanjin get recognized as reaching satori, so they can find traces of their selves in things they create? Very few.
“And hear me: this is wrong. There’s nothing in the Revised Bible, nothing in the Diaries or in any oracular ruling that requires Pathwalkers to accept such a life.
“The second Oracle, Kosiya Yemo, told us in her final public address in February of 2624 that everyone on Jitsu would be shattered and rebuilt in one hundred years, realigned as a planet to Sopiya’s wisdom. We’re just thirty-nine years away from that prophesized day. I’m excited at the progress we’re making.
“Take my giya here, Meji Pishan. They have begun to show their flock how we can balance meditation with secular life. It’s an exciting time here in Kinguyama. Those of yall from Station City: look around at the houses we’re rebuiding, at the bustle in our streets. This is the Path. We don’t view yall as infidels, but as our friends, our potential siblings. We wait for yall with open arms. If and when the time comes, we’ll welcome yall, just as my community welcomed me.”
The crowd’s response was deafening approval: applause, shouts, stamping and chanting that, drowning out a smattering of boos and hissing, went on for a solid ten minutes till Tenshi sat down again and Giya Pishan motioned everyone to silence.
After a moment of stillness, the giya spoke.
“Arojin Tenshi Koroma has spoken truth. Our message here in Kinguyama, in Samaneino Teyopan, maintains strict continuity with the words of the Founder and the Oracles. And that unbroken thread—six centuries of Pathwalking—leads me to the next tasks in my sacred role as giya.”
They gestured broadly at the crowd.
“Tesnhi has criticized the low percentage of Seers who become satorijin. Again, her words ring true. This fact is not the failing of teyopanjin, however. It falls squarely on the shoulders of the giya. If the people in my charge cannot achieve awareness, it is because I have not done my job. I am to guide them. To do so, I will be lauching an aggressive program, tailored to the needs of each adult teyopanjin in this town. Within two years, every one of you will become satorijin if you follow the regimen I have prepared for you.”
Thunderous applause. Exulted shouts of praise.
But a few people walked away, shaking their heads.
Meji is putting their head on the chopping block, Tenshi reflected. They must truly feel they have my sister’s backing. I hope it’s not an illusion.
“Perhaps you also know,” they continued as the sound died down, “that I serve an administrative function in this town, heading up its Council of Anshyano, which up to this point has governed its municipal affairs. If all goes as we hope, however, that will change Before the Chamber of Deputies this session are a number of important bills that we predict will be passed and signed into law by the Archon.”
The crowd seemed collectively on tinterhooks, leaning forward as one.
“Introduced by the Reporumatudan, these measures include the restructuring of Kinguyama’s government so that religious and administrative duties are separated, creating a municipal board to which non-Pathwalkers can be elected. Also on the slate is an innovative school founded by our own Brando D’Angelo di Makomo on the fairgrounds built by Arojin Tenshi Koroma. Named Ra-Koreji, it will serve as a space where both Pathwalkers and off-worlders alike can receive a quality education in many fields. Finally, we Reformers seek to establish partnerships between merchants in Station City and residents of Kinguyama residents, creating local business outlets to bring vital goods and services into our community beyond what is avaible in the Bida Sento.”
Tenshi hardly heard her giya’s closing remarks. Not because of the applause, but because she couldn’t stop looking at the faces of her people.
They were crying tears of joy.
A month later, Tenshi was awakened in the middle of the night by the house AI.
“Emergency call from Meji Pixan.”
Tenshi sat up. “Query: audio only. Route to master bedroom.”
“Tenshi-shi?” Meji’s voice was trembling.
“Yes? What’s wrong?”
A sob. “You need to come to town. They’ve attacked. People are dead. Houses destroyed.”
Tenshi yanked the sheets aside, standing naked in the darkness. “What the fuck? Okay, I’m on my way.”
“Crisis control is at the municipal building. Triage in the courtyard.”
Tenshi grabbed her clothes from the floor and headed for bathroom. Behind her, Brando called. “I’ll come with you.”
“No.” Her voice was hard with grief and rage. “Stay here with Tana. I’ll keep you in the loop.”
She dressed and pulled her hair back with a clip, then sped toward Kinguyama in her transport. The last four weeks had seen terrorist activity pick up in the Mashkanu prefecture, but the ATS had kept them away from towns till now.
But last night, deputies had passed the reform package Tenshi and her allies had worked so hard to develop. She’d expected a response, but not an invasion.
So this how you respond, Santo. Bastard. Just wait.
Outside the municipal building, ATS medics and local healers were attending to the many wounded. Tenshi was about to walk among them, offering compassion and help, but then she saw the row of bodies covered by sheets.
Her heart breaking, she stormed into the building and found the Council of Anshyano around a table with two ATS captains, marking a holographic map of Kinguyama.
“Tenshi-shi,” Meji said, lifting their eyes. “This is Captain Binh of Delta Squad and Captain Wu, whose trainees are providing logistical support.”
She nodded at them, gritting her teeth. “Details.”
Binh pointed at the eastern edge of town on the map. “Crew of yakuza gunsels came into the city at this point and entered two dozen homes under construction. They beat or shot family members, taking household supplies of moku and setting the structures on fire as they left. Very surgical.”
Tenshi clenched her fists and looked at Meji. “The theft of moku is a smokescreen. They’re sending a message.”
“I agree,” the giya said. “So we have to respond.”
“Respond?” asked Tenshi. “How? Our people are dead and wounded. No political move is going to turn back the clock. Arming the townspeople is out of the question.”
Meji crossed their arms across their chest. “I’m not talking politics. There are other ways of defending ourselves. My last act as head of this council, Arojin-kun, will be this: hiring the private firm that provided security at the dedication ceremony.”
Tenshi took a step forward, describing a semicircle in the air in front of her with her fists. “As a community defense force, yes? To keep these bastards out.”
One of the anshyano, Radi Doruba, objected immediately. “How could we afford to have them defending us around the clock?”
“The accounting firm that we’ve been consulting with in Station City,” Meji explained, “has calculated our likely municipal revenue. Tuition at Ra-Koreji, taxes on the outlet businesses, projected increase in pilgrims from off world. Should be enough.”
Tenshi pulled her datapad from her bag. “I’m also going to contact that expansionist think-tank on Dhara. They’ve been wanting to help fuel reform here. I bet I can get them to underwrite some of the expense. Uniforms, headquarters, holding cells.”
Anshyano Doruba cleared her throat. “The Dominatudan are going to push back, hard.”
Tenshi waved her datapad dismissively. “Then their leaders shouldn’t have gotten in bed with the bloody demimundo. We can’t worry about them anymore. Our people’s lives and enlightenment hang in the balance.”
She turned on her
heels and started to leave.
“Where are you going, Arojin-kun?” Meji called after her.
“To help the wounded and mourning,” she replied without looking back. “To do whatever I can for our people.”
Kinguyama’s security detail turned out to be a blessing. Its presence drew reformers from other towns and prefectures in droves. Many hired Tenshi’s new team of anshyano architects to help them discover through meditation and study the home design that best expressed their individual Way along the Path. Moderate Jitsujin also drifted in, fleeing the wave of terrorist attacks the ATS couldn’t quell.
Even off-worlders started petitioning the Municipal Board for permission to buy land and live in the burgeoning town. The promise of a less hectic life appealed to most, but some were enthralled by Meji Pishan’s weekly homilies, now carried by multiple infotainment platforms.
We promise enlightenment and eternity through an understanding of self worked out in the world as well as within us, Tenshi reflected. I can see why non-believers find the message attractive.
With Brando’s help, she convinced Pishan of the potential for new converts to the Path, specifically to the Way of Shattering. The giya then sent their ebanjerusha (except for Tenshi’s father, who’d long abandoned the town) to proselytize in Station City itself.
From among the many new members of Samaneino Teyopan, Meji selected additional ebanjerusha to carry out a more traditional duty: escorting off-world pilgrims to Kinguyama.
They were coming in droves.
Tenshi sold her expansive flat in Station City and instead rented three floors of an office building to house Izakiwo, the architectural firm and construction company she had incorporated under Jitsu’s new laws.
When Station City mayor Seni Chunhawan accepted a position with the CPCC’s relatively new Ministry of State, Tenshi threw a farewell banquet for him in Izakiwo’s largest meeting room.
She was sipping on a drink, catching up with Areshan Yesuro, when she heard Brando’s voice ring out above the buzz of music and conversation.
“But it is a problem, Meji-shi.”
“I don’t know that I agree,” Tenshi heard the giya respond. “There seems to be a general upswing in Reformer sentiment in many prefectures.”
Areshan flicked their head at Tenshi, and the two weaved their way through the press of guests.
“What are we arguing about?” Areshan asked.
Brando cleared his throat. “I was telling the giya that I’m worried. So many Reporumatu moving to the Mashkanu prefecture is upsetting the balance. We need to be more spread out, not a lone island in the middle of a sea of Dominatu.”
Tenshi shook her head. “We’re not, Brando. There’s the Arusha district, under Yuki Umkapa—"
“And Inkungu,” Areshan added pointedly. “You know, the prefecture run by yours truly?”
“They’re both mostly reformer in make-up,” Tenshi continued. “Doing similar work to what’s happening in Kinguyama. Other moderate prefects are here tonight. We’re working on them, trying to bridge the gaps.”
Brando raised an eyebrow. “I know, Tenshi. I have been paying attention. But yall seem to be forgetting that general elections for the Chamber of Deputies will be held in four years. There’s, what, 106 members, two from each prefecture. Here’s the scenario: Arusha, Inkungu and Mashkanu continue to swallow up reformers from other areas. More prefectures end up majority Dominatu, demographically. Come election time, more Dominatu deputies get sworn in, and that faction gains control. Then they start of the dismantling everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
“But the answer,” Meji countered, “is not to stem the flow of reform-minded emigrants from other prefectures.”
“They’re right, Brando,” Tenshi agreed. “The answer is to create more reform-minded Jitsujin. To convince them with our message and our example.”
As she said the words, however, a part of her admitted that Brando was right.
INTERCHAPTER E
Maharaja Dead at 63
Martian Multimedia
Hamed Bu Yabes
3 June, 2686—The Constitutional Monarchy of Kunti was in mourning today at the passing away of its ruler, Maharaja Tri Leksono. The Office of the Royal Physician declared the cause of death to be a severe stroke. Leksono is best remembered as the implementer of significant social reforms across Sigma Draconis, including the institution of a process that gradually shifts the monarchy to a republic, paving the way for the independent system’s entrance into the Consortium by May of 2695 if all requirements are met. The Maharaja’s son, Raja Uki Leksono, will be made temporary regent of Sigma Draconis in a ceremony on Friday. The prince has promised in a faux-conference with CPCC leaders that the transition will proceed as the late maharaja agreed.
* * *
Kinguyama Now Home to 67,000 Residents
The Pathwalker Periodical
Erena Chimari
15 July, 2686—The once minor town of Kinguyama, made famous fifteen years ago when Karibudan declared Samanei Koroma the third Dominian Oracle, has now grown twenty times its original size and is home to 67,000 residents, fifteen percent of off-world origin. Its secular municipal board recently annexed a 2,000-hectare strip along the desert to establish a business and pilgrim reception center.
Under the auspices of the latest reforms, residents have begun selling crafts and food to visitors and trading amongst themselves. According to a recent report from the CPCC Ministry of State, the town has now generated the first stable economy—outside of Station City—the planet Jitsu has ever seen.
The Reformer economic strategy being carried out in Kinguyama is widely perceived as an attempt to undo Dominian political hegemony on Jitsu. The Reporumatudan political alliance appears to be employing other methods to reach that goal. Outreach emissaries have been sent from Kinguyama to the capital cities of all other prefects in order to establish dialogue and encouraging reform. Reformers have proposed a bill that would add a second chamber to the legislature, with representation based on population. Another bill would reclassify Station City as a district, with its own legislators in both houses.
* * *
Organized Crime Clashes on the Rise
Oceania Equatorial Information Net
Scot Jeunz
17 July, 2686—The capital city was rocked today by violent confrontations between rival crime syndicates. Alexandria’s municipal police and Consortium Constabulary officers were quick to intervene, but not before several dozen deaths occurred. System Constable Mena Zaki confirmed what the chief of Alexandria’s police force at first reported: most of the corpses were members of the organized crime syndicate called the Aztlan Angels, suspected of involvement in a great deal of the illegal activity in the Helios system, both on New Mecca and here on Oceania.
“The other group,” informed Constable Zaki, “appears to be the local branch of the Brotherhood. We’ve been getting reports over the last few years that new demimundan forces were moving in, but this is the first we see of the Brotherhood.”
Soon after the constable’s declaration, OEIN’s sources let slip that the local Brotherhood underboss may be none other than Felipe Beserra, half-brother to that syndicate’s infamous cacique, Konrau Beserra, who rose to power in a bloody struggle a decade ago. Beserra had dropped off the radar of various intelligence communities when he pulled all Brotherhood operations from the Solar System. Rumors place him at various locations in CPCC territory, though more reliable reports indicate that the new Brotherhood headquarters is far beyond Consortium space.
Today’s clash marks the sixth such battle between syndicates across the CPCC in the last four weeks. Five of the skirmishes were between Brotherhood members and other powerful gangs, suggesting that the syndicate may be trying to expand its power base. L’ermandá, as the Brotherhood is called in its members’ native language, is one of the oldest organized crime groups in existence. It got its start in the late twentieth century as a prison gang on Earth
called the Texas Chicano Brotherhood, and it was one of the first Mafias in the Solar Asteroid Belt. In 2099, the gang schismed into the Brotherhood and the Aztlan Angels. The two groups remain enemies to this day.
* * *
Sigma Draconis Arms Itself
Milan Daily Gazette
Adele Tuttisanti
25 August, 2686—Regent Uki Leksono, son of the late maharaja of the Constitutional Monarchy of Kunti, the official government of what the CPCC calls the Sigma Draconis system, requested of the Consortium Diet a permit to purchase additional planetary defense weaponry from the corporate republic of BelCorp. Leksono cited fears of possible syndicate infiltration like what is reportedly occurring on Atlantis, where demimundan forces fleeing Brotherhood aggression in other systems are seeking a foothold. Given the dozens of inter-mafia battles and the supposed exodus of syndicates to new worlds, the regent of Kunti insists that his people must be well protected. Bolstering Leksono’s request, the BelCorp CEO faux-conferenced with members of the Diet leadership for several hours from her office in the Ross 154 system. The move to permit arms sales to non-Consortium governments is a controversial one that, if carried out, may cause as much furor as the decision to provide the Kunti government fenestration drives did two years ago.
* * *
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: The Way of Deception (encrypted)
Date: August 29, 2688 13:07:37 (SST)
Decrypted 13:15:32 via FAE (archived version translated from Baryogo)