Chapter 3
Twelve million people were plunged into the dark ages. With primitive tools they collected the dead and worked to identify them. Most were easily recognized and their loved ones were witnesses to their death. Often this meant fathers and husbands. All of the deaths were being recorded. They were buried in makeshift graves wherever there was room and no fear of hitting a water line.
Then there were others, sometimes entire families, beaten beyond recognition. In some cases the military equipment used to transport the soldiers were driven over people pinned to the road with straps or deposited while unconscious. These would take time to identify and in the heat they were decomposing rapidly and they were becoming a health hazard. The odor of death and humiliation hung in the air. In the cases where identity was questioned photographs were made and set aside for later identification.
The hospitals were full of the tortured victims. Sometimes they were young boys so traumatized they had lost speech and their eyes were vacant. So brutal and swift was the attack on the peoples of Triolux North that its comprehension would be scrutinized for years and a full analysis would never be written. The damage to infrastructure was enormous. Why these so - called believers rallied so much hate and rage toward a peaceful planet was yet to be discovered. By their comments to those that were brutalized a theory was being bantered about.
Thrust into such a primitive state of existence drained all of them. It was a constant reminder of the indignity they suffered and the poor state of affairs they must endure. With each meal scratched out of the forest or pulled from the sea came a rage. The subtle, building desire for revenge quickened them in their efforts to rebuild. All this hate was palpable and shown in the survivor eyes. It was aimed at a lost tribe and Tee understood that having electricity was at the top of the list of things needed. Alex could not be employed on a full scale basis, but with a few batteries charged by the sun and the wind Tee was able to communicate with him and seek guidance.
The unit used to cool the magnets and keep the atoms from spreading in the powerhouse that supplied electricity was destroyed. Without magnets chilled to a super-cooled temperature they were a planet thrust into total darkness. The hospitals were using emergency batteries that wouldn’t last any more than a month. The food stocks were not being replenished and the transports were running out of charge.
Tee sat at a desk that faced the sea. The office was warm and humid. A fog formed on the inside of the glass and obscured the sea, making it look like an abstract painting. He had a screen that allowed him to communicate with Alex and he was surrounded by a team of engineers. They came from all disciplines, electrical, chemical, structural and social. They formed a list of questions to pose to Alex and Tee was sending them, via and antiquated method of writing on a child’s tablet with a marker and holding it up to a sensor for Alex to consume. It was slow and maddening. They were one and all covered in sweat.
“What is the fastest and least expensive way to cool the magnets to regain our electrical system?”
The answers were technical and Tee was at a loss but he could see the engineers were concentrating on the answers and nodding their heads. It was the first sign of hope Tee had seen in days. He wondered as the light drained from the sky and the engineers were filing out of the room how each had survived. Were they like him, cowards who hid? These were the stories they would take with them to the grave and through guilt they were being propelled to right a personal failure as much as repair the collective damage done. All of life conspires to live.
A string of speakers was assembled and put in every corner of the planet. This low grade system of communication was the first of many interim schemes made for various needs. Tee took the microphone, no larger than a pea, and set it on his desk. He looked at his clothes. Stains were beginning to appear and he was not used to being unkempt. There was a slight odor from his skin and he would do what he could about it when this speech was over.
“To the peoples of Triolux North: I address you as your humble servant and wish to convey to you as much information as I can. As you know we were invaded by a group of savage and lost souls that will be dealt with in time. Until then we must address the immediate challenges we face. To that end we now have a ship sent to Triolux South to mine for Arridiate for the manufacture of a device that will use sound waves to cool our magnets to a subzero temperature and allow us to restart the machines needed to make electricity. We are looking at a timetable of at least three months and possibly more.
“We have contacted the traders from the nebula quadrant and asked them to come and trade with us and we’ve given them a list of supplies to bring, including food. For trade I am offering the plankton that each of us has stored in our homes. Collectively we can deliver approximately forty tons and this will buy us time until we can find something else to trade or be in a self-sustaining place once again. I understand your concerns and to address the life - shortening response our bodies will undergo we now have our scientists working on a way to enhance our next harvest of Plankton. There is the hope that the enhanced methods will surpass the life - extending qualities we are now privileged enough to enjoy.
“This is not a request that’s up for debate. It was a promise made to our trading partners and sent using all the batteries we could find. This is our greatest hope and a recommendation by Alex.
“To our women brutalized by these animals cloaked in human bodies: we stand with you, we support you in any decision you make in regards to pregnancy. No matter your choice we will not have these creatures come back and retrieve their offspring. Those children will be raised in the Triolux North fashion and be accepted by all of us. We were the light of the universe and the envy of all the other planets except for one, Zellhigh. Its location will be broadcast to all. Its defenses removed. We will re-educate those who can be moved in the right direction and eliminate those who can’t. This is our awakening. Out of our ashes there will come a force the Universe has never dreamed. We will be the envy of every known galaxy once again, not for our might, but for our intellectual tolerance. Shame on you, occupants of Zellhigh, you will be brought to your knees and given a choice, which is more than you gave us and in that lies the difference.
“Our captains and sailors are doing all they can to raise the ships the invaders scuttled. Soon they will be reaping the sea for food as well as dumping nutrients for a rapid replenishment of the plankton. Rest assured that around the clock all is being done to bring our quality of life back as soon as possible. No one is alone even as you fight loneliness. Every one of you out there is important and now is a good time to check on your neighbor, make a new acquaintance and understand that together we can do anything.
“I am Tee Calmwater from the village of Norden and I was given a vision during the raid. From whom it came, I cannot say, only that I was receptive when it came. By the stars and the sea we will rise and thrive and educate those who came here to destroy us and take advantage of our kindness. We were treated like children with only our intellect for defense. But their mistake, if you can call it that, is leaving millions of us to contemplate a reaction. We are Triolux North and we will survive. We will bend time and arrive on the doorstep of those we wish to educate with a speed and cunning they will not expect. They will be stunned beyond anything they have seen. Until tomorrow when another announcement will be delivered I bid you goodnight, my beautiful and brave people. “
Chapter 4
A knock woke Tee early the next morning. He had fallen asleep in his dirty clothes and he scratched his unshaved face as he answered the door. He was shocked to be looking at a large and shabby group of citizens who appeared to be from all the various cities and towns on the planet. They all began speaking at once, women, young and old men, fragile and strong. This bombardment rattled him and he raised his hands to silence them. “I will invite each of you in, one at a time, and hear your concerns.”
He stepped aside allowing a middle - aged woman, who looked as if sleep
was a foreign concept, into his home. The living room, though small, had four seats and she took one. Her hair was disheveled. There was an odor about her person and a hint at someone who had recently exercised. She had the dark skin common to the Triolux North people; she was attractive and stood erect before she seated herself.
“I am Tee.” He extended his hand in which she put her hand palm up as he slid his across the top of hers, which was the custom.
“Everyone knows who you are,” she said with little inflection. It was simply a statement, and it took him aback since he was not accustomed to any sort of recognition. On some level it pleased him.
“I am Jung and I have come to petition the waterworks engineers to open the gates of the reservoirs in the city of Kungay. We are suffering from thirst and at a great distance from the sea or even a river. We are a mining town in the production of Velhiem, a mineral necessary to preserve the plankton on long voyages. Without electricity the young and the elderly are beginning to falter. We will give up our plankton. We understand the concerns but I am begging you Tee Calmwater to address our need for water immediately.”
Tee raised his finger in the air and walked to his desk. He wrote the problem on the child’s white drawing board and held it up to Alex, which meant a sensor cell no larger than a fingernail. Alex soon made a reply which involved going into the city maintenance tunnel and manually opening a valve labeled 4C. This would allow water to be released into the city’s twelve fountains at the various plazas. Each citizen in the town of Kungay would be allowed 2 gallons a day and there would be enough water in the reservoir to last until the electricity is back on.
Even though it was Alex that solved the problem it was Tee who was given the credit. He heard her as she scampered down the stairs past the others. “He is truly blessed. Tee Calmwater has been touched by the light.”
The next person was a young man named Vinsat and he had traveled all the way from Gordan by way of a small boat harnessing the wind. “It was a new experience and there was a moment when I thought the sea was going to swallow me. But I am here now.”
The issue was medicine and a dwindling supply of Regenerate used to boost the body’s ability to replace old and damaged cells with new. Once again Tee consulted with Alex. The supplies of medicine all over the planet could not be replenished without electricity. The problem had a limited solution and it left Vinsat worrying his hands as Tee gave him the instructions. “You realize,” Tee said, “the Grail snake is one of the most poisonous in the entire Universe. The extraction of its venom will be life threatening.”
Vinsat loved his grandmother and without the medicine she would die. The solution of milking a poisonous snake and then rigging a centrifugal device to separate the dense poison from the clear liquid seemed daunting. However, Tee came and sat next to him. “We are nothing by ourselves. In your village will be someone experienced with the snake and someone else who can help separate the poison from the fluid you need. Start at the hospital. Don’t be shy. Your quest is a worthy one and once they see and understand your needs they will help. This is what we do.”
And so the day went on like that until Tee was too exhausted to deal with anymore emergencies. He was at his wit’s end and scheduled to have another meeting with the engineers to do something about Alex being made available to every city and town on the planet. The electrical consumption of Alex was minimal and now it was imperative to the survival of so many. This became one more pressing issue.
It turned out to be an easier fix than any of them had first realized. Alex, of course, had the solution. There were maintenance tunnels all over the planet that once used cables filled with silica to conduct electricity. The cables were abandoned to wireless repeaters that had less resistance and allowed for wireless electrical flow, often containing information used to travel at a great speed. The cables could once again be utilized to bring Alex to a central point in each city and town and even the rural villages. Riders were sent from Tee with instructions. This included those that were outside of his door and thus began a system of reliable communicate with all the residents of Triolux North.
Within two months Tee was beginning to see a comradery amongst the people. They were becoming closer than before and because of this mixing of the various trades and disciplines solutions that even Alex had not fathomed began to appear. In a way the planet was like a geographical area that had suffered a severe blow from a natural disaster. Tee realized that when the time came and the electricity was once again flowing the rebuild would be using the latest and most advanced techniques. This would mean that the planet would undergo an upgrade that otherwise would have been delayed for years, a millennium, who knows. But with this modernization would come a greater understanding of how to accomplish the goals the planet had set for itself. There was a confidence that quickened the steps of his fellow citizens and he was partly responsible and felt a satisfaction deeper than he had ever felt before.
The Committee
Although this was not the way of the Triolux it was necessary to expedite decisions and have the implementation of those outcomes carried forth with precision. The members were chosen by each discipline and trade and therefore showed the people they were not excluded but had qualified representation. This included two women who had been abused, one who chose to eliminate the fetus and one who chose to keep the child.
Most of the focus was on the electrical engineer and much attention was attached to his projections. With every setback and obstacle the engineers encountered there seemed to be a round of murmuring that held an accusation of incompetence in its tone.
Tee found himself in the awkward position of referee and cheerleader.
“If you people can foresee so much, why was nothing mentioned about the disabling tremors that occur on Triolux South? These tremors were never studied. Yes they were known. But as to the depth they traveled downward on the Settein Slope, no one had any reason to detail any of it in the past. We were not interested in mining Arridiate to be smelted and forged into machinery that created super - charged sound waves.” The engineer, known as Bleab, showed his bulging red eyes. He used those red - lined orbs, screaming of limited sleep, to threaten each member of the committee, including those who had said nothing. He took the left collar of his robe, the long and sweeping windbreak; a flap of cloth used to fend off sand and tossed it across his face. This was the sign that anything said by the others would be blocked in his mind. Though it was only symbolic because it did not cover his ears or eyes, the gesture was seen as somewhat immature.
Tee said, “The last thing our women need is a man glaring at them with scorn.”
Bleab bowed his head and said, “Lain and Gert, I apologize for my insensitivity.”
“It’s trying times,” Tee said, with his fingers laced and his elbows propped on the large conference table. “We aren’t getting enough sleep. The season of heat will soon be upon us and it’s oppressive under the best of times. We know you’re under pressure and so my question is what can we do to help?”
“Be patient, we are doing all we can.”
The others seated at the table nodded and some felt a certain shame. These early days were miserable and washing your clothes at the river’s edge was humiliating. There was no escaping the nightmare which was now their lives. Everyone was exposed and raw. Tempers flared and the stress was constant. Tee felt keeping people busy was the only way to distract their minds from self-pity and anger. With the help of the committee they devised projects for each province. It was not strictly busy work because it came with useful merits.
The soil on Triolux South on the slopes of the Settein were becoming a huge problem with stability but yielded a surprise find. It was soon rumored to be a gift of the light. A spy ship from the believers had landed undetected on a wide ridge near the center of the slope. It was thought to be part of a forward observation team funneling information back to the main invasion offensive. The soft soil however soon turned to jelly once the ship
landed and according to the seismologist a twin pulse had sent waves along the ridge and opened up a fissure that swallowed the ship in a matter of seconds.
The ship was turning into a treasure trove of information. A schematic was located that showed the exact location of Zellhigh in the Cluster Galaxy of Masodem 647. Every inch of the ship was being explored including the muscle mass measurement and blood content of the cadavers. The ship’s cloaking device as well as its low level communication frequencies were all being exploited with an almost giddy feel. Every day new revelations of technical advances were being delivered to Tee. The weapons from the ship were a great find and engineers were already discovering weaknesses.
Unfortunately this was no longer a secret. An announcement went out to never discuss the finds from the slope with any outsider. The wired transmission with its low level technical signature was considered secure. It was very important that no conversation about the find were ever heard by any of the traders. Triolux North had the element of surprise and they, more than most, knew how much of an impact that had.
Although the tremors slowed the extraction of the Arridiate the find of the spy ship seemed to bolster the spirit of the peoples of Triolux North as well as the committee. Enough so, that any delays in the need for electricity were suffered with the adoption of appreciation and a candor in knowing what terrible conditions the engineers were suffering for the extraction. Several men had already died in the pursuit and equipment was often lost to the fissures.
The engineers were however devising clever ways to exploit the crevices. The problem was that surface vibrations rattled the substrate that turned the soil into jelly. The result was an unstable slope in combination with a wet climate. And the saturated air didn’t allow the topsoil to ever dry out. A basin, flat and sitting on firm bedrock is the ideal place to drill. The side of a foothill jiggling with surface tremors that turned saturated soil and sand into soup was the worst of the worst.
Ths Sacking of Triolux North Page 2