Walking up the pavilion encircling the Praetorium felt like an eternal walk but eventually they entered a portion of concourse proclaiming itself the ‘Public Relations Wing’. They walked the hallways until they were able to penetrate deeper into the building. Most of the doors they passed led down hallways that didn’t look friendly to random citizens. Eventually, they saw a four-story archway of glass windows rising up and they walked towards it. It was just beyond where the spires met the main building itself that they discovered a wide stairway of some forty something runs of steps leading up towards the windowed entryway.
“Holy… hell…” Durante muttered as they reached a plateau about halfway up. “Think they have enough stairs?”
Aidele gave a half-smile. “Really make you appreciate the grandeur, don’t they?”
“No. I don’t appreciate it at all.”
She laughed and they continued on. People passed them on both sides going both ways, oblivious to the leg straining hike. Then they were entering the front doors (a series of six double doors leading inside) only to make an unfortunate discovery.
“For fuck’s sake! More stairs!?”
Aidele sighed. “Come on. Looks like just twenty more.”
“Okay, this is just bad design.”
They climbed the remainder of the stairs and walked across a large hall that led to several ornate pillars at the end, a crossing corridor that seemed to ring the building interior, six elevators at the back wall, and an interactive holodisplay on one corner where the halls met. Aidele marched over to the holodisplay and brought up a map of the entire complex.
“There has to be somebody we can talk to about meeting with the Council.” She ran her hand across the interface watching holographic displays of various departments and locations cross in and out of view.
“Maybe there’s a customer service desk somewhere.”
She paused and grumbled. “There’s an information desk all the way on the other side! We were just over there! How did I miss that!? Blast it!”
“Aidele?”
She and Durante turned towards the voice behind them and were stunned to see a familiar face. The old Chuhukon man stood in the hallway just by the elevators staring at them, a backpack slung across his shoulder. Aidele squelched in glee and bounced on her feet.
“Grandfather!?”
Aidele rushed forward and slung herself around Grandfather’s neck, her hat flying off in the motion. He hugged her firmly in return and patted her back with closed eyes, a tear sliding down one cheek.
“I can’t tell you how good it is to see you again, Aidele. I’d hoped to find you, but was terrified I wouldn’t. I honestly wasn’t sure if you’d fallen into Berricks’ trap or not. I’m happy to see you didn’t!”
Aidele drew back smiling. “Oh no, Grandfather. We fell into it. Fell into it hard.”
He frowned still holding her shoulders. “But… you managed to escape safely I see.”
She shook her head stepping out of his grip to pick up her hat. “There’s a lot to talk about, Grandfather. A lot has happened these last few weeks. Which brings us here. We need to meet with the Council and soon. Berricks’ attack on the ranch wasn’t an isolated event.”
“No, he came for your father’s journal.” Grandfather’s lips turned down. “Durante filled me in back at the ranch about why he was sent.”
Aidele cleared her throat looking to Durante, who looked away, and back to Grandfather. “We’ve learned some things since then the Council needs to be made aware of. All of Hinon is in danger. What my father invented… If the Union got ahold of it, it would change everything in all of Sol.”
“I still think it’s a ploy by Berricks…” Durante mumbled.
“Either way,” Aidele pulled her hat on and glanced at Durante, “it’s technology that can’t fall into the wrong hands.”
“I assume you’re talking about the gravitic core and have found it. Or at least seen it.”
They both stared up at the old Chuhukon and Durante felt his eyes enlarging.
“You knew about the core!?” they both said simultaneously.
Several people walked around them as Grandfather looked around and said, “It was much discussed between myself and Coop. But it is too public here to get into it and you’re right, we need to bring this to the Council’s attention. Its existence has been kept hidden for too long now. Come with me.”
They followed Grandfather around the bend to their right until he turned left down a hall leading deeper into the compound.
“How exactly did you escape, Grandfather?”
He looked down to her as they walked and smiled. “As you’ve stated, a lot has happened over the weeks. Time is of the essence right now, though. This is a tale I will share with you two when we finally have some privacy. For now, there’s a friend I wish to talk to. Should’ve visited him a few weeks ago when I first arrived. However, I’ve been busy looking for work and a place to stay.”
Aidele laughed. “Well, I have a place here now. Dad left an apartment I didn’t know he still had and some assets at my disposal.”
“Yeah. She’s practically rich now,” Durante said smiling.
“I wouldn’t go that far, but certainly better off than we were,” she nodded.
“Very fortunate for you. It will come in handy for what comes next, I’m certain,” Grandfather said barely cracking a smile, his face sterner than Durante had ever seen, even at the ranch. “Here. I believe lunch will soon be called if not already.”
He opened an ornate door and they entered a smaller corridor carpeted in red and they clomped down towards the end where there was a dual doorway. They entered and found themselves in a large room not unlike a meeting hall in a hotel. Round tables full of chairs were scattered everywhere and they saw a few robed figures meandering about. Some were getting coffee and pastries from a table at one side of the great chamber. Others sat at tables reading tablets in their hands.
“Ah, excellent,” Grandfather said and tapped a flat band around his wrist. Numbers floated into the air. “Just after eleven. Session should be breaking. Here we go now.”
They saw several robed people entering from across the room through another set of doors. Grandfather led Aidele and Durante across the chambers and toward the groups of people entering, some talking in hushed tones, others barking in irritation about whatever had just occurred. Grandfather held a hand up and waved as a smile crossed his face. A dark-skinned man in blue robes trimmed in silver saw and smiled as he waved back. They met him just inside the room.
“Garret, you old cuss!” The man and Grandfather embraced briefly. “It’s good to see you! You know, rumors have already been circulating in certain circles that you were back. Kind of insulted you didn’t come see me sooner.”
The man stood back raising his brows in mock offense. He wasn’t quite as tall as Grandfather, but close. His hair was white and curly and he sported a broad chin full of white hair as well. But his jovial cheeks were cleanshaven.
Grandfather clapped him briefly on the shoulder and laughed. “Were it only that I was able ‘til now. It has been quite the time as of late. Today, I was coming to see you about… well, it just so happens my task is of the same nature as my granddaughter’s here. I want you to meet Aidele Wilson, and our friend, Durante Weiss. Aidele, Durante, this is Senator Orros Calgary. And I believe he can help us.”
Durante and Aidele took turns shaking Orros’ hand. Orros grinned as he spoke. “Anything I can do for you would be my pleasure, young one. I fought with your grandfather during the war. And I knew Professor Wilson when he was employed by the Ministry. I… was sorry to hear of his loss. He was a great man.”
“Thank you, senator,” Aidele blushed. “It’s actually because of one of my father’s inventions that we’re here.”
“Is that so?” Orros looked to Grandfather.
“Yes. And we’d prefer to discuss the matter in private. Have you seen Elien and Doan? I would like them to be in on
the discussion as well.”
“Well, I see Doan getting ready to stuff his face. I haven’t seen Elien. Hold on a moment, I’ll get Doan and find an aide.” Orros walked over to the refreshments table as they waited near the doors. Orros returned after a few minutes. “Doan, look who has come to pay us a visit. Garret!”
“Garret, you old dog! I haven’t seen you in, what, decades? How have you been keeping yourself?”
“It’s a long, convoluted story old friend,” Garret said embracing Doan briefly and then standing back.
Orrus chuckled and gripped Doan’s shoulder, “And this here is his granddaughter, Aidele Wilson. Their friend Durante Weiss.”
Doan shook their hands as each was introduced. At his name, Durante said, “Actually, I’m an engineer for the Union. Came in on the Invicta.”
“Oh, really? I’ll bet we could have all sorts of thrilling conversations then.” Doan smiled warmly.
“Yeah, I’d say so. Especially the one we’re about to have…” Durante twitched his lips prompting Doan to raise an eyebrow and look to Orros.
“Is this that important?” he asked.
“Garret seems to think so,” Orros replied. “Come on, let’s find a meeting room. I’ll track down my aide to send him after Elien.”
They started out of the chamber and Doan asked, “We need Elien for this conversation, too? How can that angry gasbag be of any use to us?”
“I think we’re about to find out,” Orros said clapping him on the back.
ELIEN HURRIED DOWN the corridor, already furious about being torn away from his caucus on addressing population concerns and the issue of redistricting. None of which could really wait any longer. It had already been tabled too many times and the situation was growing worse every year.
Each domain was headed by a regional governor. They also had only as many senators as number of districts allowed. One senator for every twenty districts. Where it started getting tricky was in the upper population limits that could be in any given district. Some genius in the past had set that limit at two million citizens. Perhaps, Elien considered, that might have been no issue two-hundred years earlier, but with a current population of two-hundred-fifty million and some change, Aquila Mons had the largest population per square mile in any of the domains. As consequence, the city was fast approaching one-hundred-twenty-seven districts and were currently being represented by six senators. Soon to be seven. The average count was two for most of the domains. But a few had three or four. And more domain additions were being built by the year. Just the previous year, four new domains were opened and available for colonization.
It’s all too bloated! There’s no reason for such complications! We need to start focusing on district blocks of fifty to sixty million! Why are they fighting me so hard on this!? Haven’t they seen the Praetorium gallery lately!? It’s a goddamned zoo in there! He rounded a bend making for the meeting chamber his presence had been requested in, his white robe rimmed in gold flowing behind him in his angry walk. And now Calgary wants to waste more of my time with whatever nonsense is on his mind today!
Voices came from the conference room as Elien entered. Something along the lines of: ‘…Maybe this will gird their loins to the coming threat,’ and, ‘You always were the most optimistic of us.’ But Elien was already speaking his own mind as the door slid open.
“Alright! What is this all about!? I’m missing an important—” He froze staring at the large Chuhukon gripping the back of a chair in the middle of the room.
There were others too. All standing around the U-shaped table the chairs were ringing.
Orros Calgary, the dekon senator from the Plainsfield Domain. A worthless place that had once hoped to grow forests, but ended up with plains and started grazing cattle instead. Calgary looked just as much one of the dekon cattle. A white-haired sheep with a mournful, sorry grin. He was wearing the standard black robe with copper trimmings signifying his domain representation.
Near the back of the room and pacing was Doan Pritchard. A pale man with long and silky bluish white hair. Senator for the polar domain of Karsis. A domain with the sole export being potable water mined from deep within the surface of Hinon. He supposed fresh water was important. But should those reserves ever run out, that would spell the end of Karsis. Pritchard was their only senator. The man stopped pacing and stared at Elien, his pale skin nearly white and his robe a garish crimson lined with jade trimming.
Also, there was a young Chuhukon woman wearing Wastelander garb, and a young man with pale skin. But not as pale as Pritchard’s by far.
Elien fixed his eyes on the large Chuhukon gripping the chair. “Garret Lester. How many years has it been, I wonder? Not long enough, I would say! Come to destroy another domain, have you?”
“Elien!” Calgary looked aghast. “That’s not how we greet old friends!”
“Old friends!? He’s a menace!”
Lester raised a hand to stop the back and forth. “This is not what we came for. But, it’s nice to see you again too, Elien. I see your pleasantness is still one of your most endearing qualities.”
“Get to it already!” Elien glared daggers at him. After all these years, and the chaos he’d created, the man had the nerve to show his face again. That the Defense Force had ever thought you worthy of the highest award is beyond me!
“We just felt you might want to be part of this conversation. I understand you still wield tremendous sway with this congress. And bitter resentment and rage as well. Yet, we were just getting caught up over how bad things are getting around the world.” Lester spoke gently and with the sort of smile Elien always hated, the ‘I-understand-how-you-feel’ sort. “Well, it’s likely about to get much worse.”
“What are you rambling on about?” Elien was losing what little patience he had left. He hated preamble and delaying the point of the conversation.
“Maybe we should sit for this,” Calgary said motioning to the chairs.
“I prefer to stand, if it’s all the same to you, Calgary. Whenever you’re ready to begin this joke of a—”
“By the Spirits, Elien!” Pritchard shouted stepping forward. “We all know, too well, your disdain for Garret! But we were all good friends before the war divided us! Can’t you put your animosity to the side for one hot moment? You know, as well as us, Garret wouldn’t be here if it weren’t important!”
Elien went silent for a moment glaring at Pritchard. He noted the girl was slowly looking back and forth between them, a nervous anxiety on her face.
“Very well. What’s this all about?”
“There is much to this tale that must be gotten into,” Garret started. “My granddaughter here, Aidele, will begin. With your father if you feel up to it.”
She nodded. “Absolutely. I think you’re right. We have to begin there. Where should I stop, though?”
“Where Mr. Durante Weiss,” Lester motioned towards the young man, “enters the picture.”
Lester nodded at Weiss and he nodded back.
Elien listened as the girl spoke. He sighed inwardly as she regaled them with a tale of outlaws murdering her father in cold blood, and her months’ long quest of revenge. When she was finished, she looked to Lester, who smiled a sad, warm smile.
“Fascinating. Though you have my sympathies for your loss—” Elien was interrupted by a snort from Pritchard. Calgary flashed him a scolding look. “As I was saying, though you have my sympathies, what do you expect from me? The Wastelands are a vile place. Full of all sorts of despots and human scum.”
“We’re not finished, Elien,” Lester said and nodded to Weiss. “Durante, if you would pick up the tale.”
Elien rolled his eyes as Weiss continued the story by starting with his time aboard the Invicta and the mission of General Berricks. A cold nervousness came across him at this part. So, it’s true! Berricks and the Union have returned. But, why haven’t they contacted me yet? Surely, Jackson has delivered my message by now! Weiss went on until he got to the po
int of his home invasion.
“You see there, my dear!? The Wastelands even turn Union scientists into criminals!” Elien looked around the room and saw everyone staring at him. He scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. “Fine. As you were.”
The young man cleared his throat and went through the story of evading hunters hired by Berricks and their flight through the Spine. Elien was hardly listening. The Union had gotten his message about the journal yet hadn’t brought him onboard to secure it with their efforts. Instead, Wilson had changed his mind and gotten killed by idiot outlaws. Curious there is no mention of Mrs. Wilson. She must no longer be in the picture. Possibly dead. If so, good. Meddling wretch. But why hadn’t they contacted him? Weiss finished his tale with arriving at the Praetorium.
“Excellent rendition, you two,” Lester cooed with a sigh. “To hear it laid out in such detail frightens me even more now. Just a few more details to fill in then. My own conflict with Sam.”
Lester related his part in the tale and how Berricks was going to set a trap for the Wilson brat. But, by now a thought entered his head. She’s still got the journal… If I were to somehow procure it, I could take it back to Berricks myself. These two instigators don’t necessarily have to be alive either. But what would be the plan? Wait! Karrus! He used to have sordid business dealings with Continuum cartels and I’ll wager he still does, the cretin. Yet, hiring someone to discreetly grab the journal, he’d have to know better suited people. Certainly not Wastelanders, that’s for sure. He seemed a bit tense in our last meeting, but I’ll wager I can convince him it’s for the best. Lester ended his tale and crossed his arms.
“And, so our tale has reached to the present. The Union has returned—” Lester started.
“Or… it’s just Berricks,” Weiss insisted. Yes, there was that bit of the tale where there was some disagreement over who wanted control. Elien knew, of course, it was Lee’s ambitions on reuniting the colonies with the Union.
“Or Berricks,” Lester nodded. Such a capitulator! No wonder the generals like you, betrayer! “Even so, Berricks is after the waverider and knows all about the gravitic core.”
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