by Robert James
“How can the Supreme One not know I am who I am” I replied, voice low and head bowed.
“I know well you are who you are” Came the almost petulant reply “Whether or not you are Robert, now that I have yet to decide” He told me imperiously.
“How can you not see the truth?” I asked of the old man, but that just got his hackles up.
“The truth is as I say it is” The Divine Leader bristled..
“Of course Supreme One” I bowed, as I mumbled my apologies.
“You will step forward” The Supreme One ordered, I did as commanded “Where have you been? Why did you return through a house of harlots? And why did you involve the Centropolis administration in your return?” He counted the questions off on the fingers of his crinkled and shaking old hand.
“Supreme One, I ask in advance that you not be angry at the inadequacy of my answers” I began “Yet I can but speak the truth to you” I poured it on as thick as I could..
“Yes yes, all very well, but what is the truth of these matters” He interjected impatiently.
“The simple, single truth is, I do not know Supreme One. I was just there, as if I’d never been anywhere else. I have no answer to satisfy your question” I waited.
“Did you not consider that you were a death sentence for every human with whom you have had contact these past four years?” The old man asked, pointed a gnarled finger at me.
“As I have said in complete truth Supreme One” I answered quietly “What took me from here and what has returned me is a complete mystery to me” I kept the impatience I felt out of my voice “Nor can I comprehend why mere contact with me should deserve death as a reward for helping a member of the Supreme Family” I had to risk that last bit.
“No real member of this family ever needs help from such as they” The ancient old man’s voice rose, both in volume and in pitch.
“You see! Oh Lord of Lords” Edmond’s voice was venomous “If he really were Robert, he could not think to jeopardize the Supreme Family, in order to save their worthless lives” He added. Ursula and young Elton clearly agreed he’d made a really good point. But Peter and Margaret just sat expressionless, sometimes looking over at me curiously.
“I will devise a test with which to establish your true identity” The old man declared “Till then, you are to stay in the precincts of Red House until you have reported the name and location of everyone you have had dealings with in the past four years” He decreed. The Supreme One rose as if the meeting was over, but Lady Ursula raised her hand.
“Supreme One” Lady Ursula’s voice was cream, but her words held pure poison “Is it not so that letting one who may be an impostor, occupy the home that may not be his, is much like saying he is in fact Lord Robert” She asked the old man “Before he has even passed the test your illustrious mind creates to establish the truth of that?” She added ingratiatingly.
“As always you speak wisely Ursula” The old man smiled at his eldest Daughter “But where would you have us incarcerate him otherwise? After all, it may be that this is indeed Robert. If that were so, would it not be better to have less rather than more, who know of this problematic situation” He asked her knowingly.
“You are, as ever so, completely right Lord of Lords” Ursula replied, adding “An impostor will not sleep well in the great Lord Robert’s bed”.
Lady Ursula flashed a look of pure hatred at me, before rising, with the others, for the departure of the Supreme One.
“As you’re under sort of house arrest, I shall have to order an escort and patrol for you, Robert” Peter said softly, clearly he was the operational chief. There was an unmistakable note of apology in his voice as he told me, after we’d returned to the central palace’s enormous arrival and departure area. We left as we’d arrived. Except I now had an escort. Zoran and two young men were on the steps to welcome me on my return. The buggy simply stopped, I got out and was joined by the four house guards, who were obviously very uncomfortable at being posted to police me by their commander
It was unnecessary to explain to Zoran the outcome of my meeting with the Supreme One. He, of course, did not ask, but it was clear to me that he knew and was very concerned.
“I thought it best to have Miss Proust stay in your chambers Sire” The old man reported, with a twinkle in his still lively old eyes. I went upstairs and was greeted by Susan and her two new-found friends from bath time. They had been having themselves a ball, while I suffered through my ordeal, so, naturally, I let them help me to recover. Sure there were problems ahead, still, I couldn’t see why enjoying what I could, while I could, was such a bad idea at all, nor could the three women.
I knew I’d only won a reprieve, not a battle. For reasons I needed to find out, at least three of my siblings and the Supreme One himself, did not want me back, real or not. I’d felt Edmond’s guilt, earlier in the day, but was he guilty of actually murdering Robert, or did he just think he had? It was quite late in the day, when Zoran announced the arrival of Lord Peter and Lady Margaret. I got dressed appropriately and hurried down to meet my only two allies in the looming battle. Neither had brought their entourage and they had chosen to come over in one of the golf buggies, it would seem that they wished to be discreet.
“Robert it is you isn’t it?” Lady Margaret came very close and held my face in both her hands, eyes earnestly searching mine.
“It is I dear Margaret” I put my hands over hers as I assured her.
“But, as Zoran, the Supreme One and possibly you, Peter have noticed” I went on “I am a somewhat different Robert to the one you last knew four years ago” I led them to a table in an alcove of the lobby. Zoran had everything organised and when they’d served us, they all left. Peter leaned forward and asked in a secretive tone
“Do you know what happened Robert?” I shook my head
“All I know is what I told the Supreme One” I replied truthfully.
“Well, Maggie and I think Ursula started the rumours” Peter began quietly “But Edmond and Elton actually believed the story. We think they either hired some people or did something to you themselves” Peter confided. I had no idea what he was talking about, beyond the fact that they believed I’d met with foul play.
“What sort of rumours Peter?” I queried “I mean, what does it take to make you try to kill your own brother?” I asked of both of them.
“Oh we never believed them for one second Robert” Lady Margaret said with sincerity.
“So what were all these rumours then?” I asked again.
“An old Seer, someone they’d picked up in Centropolis I expect” Peter opinioned “Any way, she was spouting all this nonsense about the house of Red spilling the Supreme Family’s blood on the land, to fertilize the seeds of freedom for the whole human race”. Peter quoted, watching me. I kept my face blank.
“How did Ursula sell that to the Council? I mean, the whole of food production is full of people who have it in for one or another of us, right?” They both laughed at my guess.
“Well, I don’t know how she did it” Lady Margret picked up the story “But she had the old woman appear, out of nowhere, all over the New World and even here on three occasions” She told me.
“I actually saw one of her appearances” Peter enjoined “It was very impressive I must say” He admitted.
“Do you think Ursula had the Supreme One’s blessing, or is he a believer?” I asked my two siblings.
“Well Ursula has the old man pretty much round her finger Robert, she always did have” Peter began to explain.
“And I know why now, Peter” Margaret interjected, adding “And I think it’s disgusting”.
“Margaret!” Peter’s urgent voice held a trace of fear. But his younger Sister continued.
“I also heard that he told people he had heard these rumours when he was young” Lady Margaret added “So he was in on it too”.
“Do you know why they want me out Peter?” I asked my green clad, peaceful Brother.
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“To be honest I really don’t Robert” He seemed completely genuine “I think it’s got something to do with consolidation of the power, and, maybe I’m next, who knows around here” Peter seemed calmly resigned to his fate, whatever that may be.
“I think they mean to get rid of all of us and have power go to her four children, by him” Lady Margaret flared again; it seems she wanted to put up a fight.
“When you said you were different, what did you mean?” Margaret asked me suddenly, to catch me off guard.
“I see with the same eyes, I hear with the same ears, but I feel with a very different heart Margret” The voice was mine, I could hear it in my head, but the words, they were not.“Listen to what we speak of, we three” My words had them almost in a trance-like-state “Fratricide, incest, the lust for ultimate power. Is this sordid family not the finite evidence that power does corrupt and absolute power, such as is held in this festering microdot on our planet, corrupts absolutely. Even among our own, the lust for more has born such evils. It can only be scourged by extinction” My auto voice stated.
I really wished this ‘automatic’ voice would stop, but it continued “How long can such a blight on humanity continue to suck the juice of freedom from the human soul?” I asked involuntarily “Yet such is the power we have amassed, that no-one from without can bring asunder the walls of our citadel. That task must be accomplished from within, by our own” I told them both, and me!
“You?” Peter asked simply, quite calm and unemotional.
“Well, according to this rumour I am” I tried to laugh it off.
“So you are the threat to all of us that they said” Lady Margaret stood up and took two steps back, her face a mask of angry determination. She reached into her kaftan and withdrew one of the small black shiny sticks I’d already seen twice.
“Oh Margaret put that thing away and come sit back down here dear girl” Peter spoke caringly but without older brother authority “You know if you kill him we have to kill you. That’s the law” He shrugged his shoulders “You’re just making things easier for them” Peter added quietly, his eyes fixed on his younger sister’s. Margaret stepped forward but did not sit, still holding that thing.
“While you’re being so truthful Robert” She looked down at me with a tight smile “Are you ready to explain where you’ve really been these past years?” Margret asked coldly. I’d obviously just lost an ally. I stood up, only because I dislike looking up at people when I talk to them. Unfortunately, Lady Margaret thought I was about to attack her. Her hand shot out in front of her and a thin red beam emitted from the black tube which she held.
Everything slipped into slow motion for me, so I comfortably had time to hold up my hand and block the beam. It bounced off my palm and over into a huge marble planter standing nearby. The thing disintegrated! I’m not sure whether looking at the planter’s small pile of residue, which could have been me, or the fact that it had actually ricocheted off my hand, affected me more. As for Peter and Margaret, they sat and stood respectively, their fearful and confused eyes frozen on mine.
“Such is the simplicity of life and death in this Divine House?” I questioned her “I merely wish to stand and you would kill me for that?” I accused her coldly.
“It was a mistake, an accident” Margaret stammered “I did not mean to harm you Robert, truly” Her voice took on a pleading tone “Your words, what you said just before, they frightened me” She added, still holding the tube weapon while she apologised.
“I should think you’re quite right to be frightened Margaret dear” Peter said, still sounding quite unconcerned about events, despite being shocked at my deflection of the lethal beam “Especially as our little disintegrators don’t work on this Robert” Peter faced me.
“Do sit down Robert” Peter urged “I’ve an idea that we should talk, and an odd feeling that there is not much time left to do it” He said, his voice was friendly, almost conversational.
“Tell me about the so-called uninhabited waste lands” I asked them, when we were sitting around a table in an alcove.
“Why would you want to know about that?” Margaret quizzed suspiciously “It hasn’t changed since you left” She added, clearly still not comfortable with me, as we three sat sipping a hot drink.
“No, Margret my dear” I replied evenly “But as I’ve already told both of you, I have changed, a great deal” I added emphatically.
“That’s quite obvious now Robert” Peter conceded “What exactly do you want to know?” He asked me amiably.
“Beyond an awareness that they exist, I remember nothing” I answered him truthfully. Somehow sure that they were relevant.
“Not surprising, I suppose” Peter responded looking at me closely “The old Robert only used them as a handy resource, beyond that, he couldn’t give a damn about them” Peter added disapprovingly.
“What kind of resource” I asked Peter, genuinely curious.
My older Brother looked at me for almost half a minute in silence “You don’t recall a decade of tri annual hunts, or your monthly enoplant harvests, nor the dozens of security skirmish responses you’ve led since your thirties?” Peter asked bemused.
“So there are people living out in the wastelands?” I confirmed, seeming to have already known that.
“Well I wouldn’t take the word waste lands too seriously Robert” Peter said smiling broadly “From the footage I’ve seen, there are some really nice places out there. But we can’t ever go there, because we’d be attacked by the natives” Peter added.
“Why would they attack us?” I surprised Peter with my question.
“In their place, I’d probably do the same Robert” He confided, much to Margret’s surprise. “New Worlders live off the energy, the building materials and the nutritional resources of the wild lands” Peter explained, adding “Just as you used to, along with both Edmond and Elton, who still do it. The harvesting of those resources is neither paid for, nor renewed” Peter continued “It’s just taken at will, from a largely defenceless people. Those that are foolish enough to object are killed. You once considered it an excellent sport” He tried to remind me, but I remembered nothing. I think I was glad about that.
“Why do the locals allow this?” I asked the seemingly decent Peter “Surely they must outnumber the New Worlders” I added.
“By twenty to one, maybe a hundred to one” Peter answered “But they have no technology and a lot of superstitions. Also, they are spread out in gypsy like groups all over the continents, while New Worlders are in impenetrable congregations” Peter explained .
“Did you say congregations intentionally?” I queried Peter nodded.
“It is what they are, from our point of view” Peter answered, serenely calm as he went on “You see, while to you and me we are pretty human, well, we are anyway” He indicated Margaret and himself “I’m not too sure about you after that” Peter pointed to the shattered remains of the planter “Well” He went on “We’ve always felt we were pretty much human, but, because of the way things are set up, the New Worlders and these waste land gypsies believe that we are actually living Gods” He explained without any embarrassment.
“But you don’t think we are real Gods do you?” I had to ask.
“Well, no, not in the way they do” Peter hedged “But we are obviously more than they. Look how few we are, with no real military, yet we absolutely control their world”. There was real relish in Peter’s voice, the love of power was clearly a family trait, but there was no compassion, just a subtle hint of pride, as he continued “Their leaders come to us slavishly to ask advice, they take our every utterance as a pearl of wisdom. But, it is their choice” Peter asserted rather defensively.
“You’re quite certain that the Supreme Family’s divinity is something accepted by all in the New World voluntarily?” I asked carefully, trying not to lose another ally.
“Of course Robert, it seems odd you should ask” Peter’s replied with certainty �
�The New World’s Governments have all voted overwhelmingly for a monolingual, multi cultural society, in which there is but one God” Peter almost recited “And that His representative on earth was the Head of the Supreme Family” Peter clarified, and that was that, as far as Peter was concerned anyway “You don’t remember any of this?” He asked. I shook my head.
“All I can remember, right now, is what I’ve learned in the last forty eight hours” I told him honestly “When did that decision get taken Peter?” I asked my older Brother.
“Over a century and a half ago” Peter replied, looking at me strangely “I mean you are Robert aren’t you?” He was wavering.
“It was a hundred and forty seven years ago next month actually” Margaret interjected pointedly, turning to face me expectantly “Well? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” She demanded.
“You’re telling the story my dear” I replied without any rancour “The more you can tell me the more I’ll know” I told them both.