In the second month it was determined to go about the extraction in a totally new and different way. Large air ships, often referred to as Quadcopters, with massive propellers were deployed over the soft soil. The payload was a massive drill bit lowered into the soil and once the bit broke the soil horizon and entered the lithosphere it found Arridiate. The bit devoured the hard stone and turned it into a powder.
At this point a second ship was brought in to drop pipes that pressurized the well and forced the Arridiate out of the depths of the well and into a companion pipe that brought the powder with dirty water through a series of filters. This method increased production as well as safety. The smelting of the Arridaite was done near the Natal River where it was heated and purified. After purification the forging, heating and cooling to strengthen the metallurgical properties of the Arridiate was carried out in the ship - building facility near the bay of Natal. From there the ingots were pressure cast into different parts near Tee’s town, the village of Noren.
The new machine was maneuvered onto a platform next to the atomic accelerator. Special ear protection was worn by the men who started it up. The room immediately began to cool. Fossil fuel was used to ignite a small boiler that turned a turbine which turned the accelerator generator until it reached maximum speed and a fusion occurred. Once the atoms created a regenerative circle and the brilliant light excited protons and neutrons the electrical system that supplied the planet came back on line.
With it came warm baths, light, air-conditioning, 3D meals, cold drinks and a sigh of relief heard around the planet. Airlites were charged and once again became the favorite mode of transportation. Water began pumping into faucets and shower heads. Walls flickered to life and family members were talking to each other in real time. And most assuring of all was the return to Alex. People could bring him into their minds and ask questions. It was like having a wise grandfather back at the helm.
The traders came and unloaded food and filled their storage bays with plankton. They, like everyone else, had heard about what happened to Triolux North. Though they wanted to pry and perhaps suggest a united front against the believers their conversations where stifled and they flew away perplexed at the lack of outrage they saw exhibited by the society of the Triolux peoples.
When they returned to their own planets and began packaging the raw plankton into retail size containers they told anyone who would listen that the inhabitants of Triolux North were a forgiving lot and they didn’t seem to harbor any ill will toward the believers. They hinted that perhaps one day simply through evolution the occupants of Zellhigh would experience enlightenment.
Chapter 5
With things returning to normal Tee Calmwater had two issues on his mind. He closed the door to his apartment and started walking down Hallway #3. It was no longer a gloomy walk because the windows weren’t covered in a humid fog. The air-conditioning was working and the glass was clear. The hall was bright and the light from the sun filled the corridor and the air was fresh and Tee felt hope. He thought about Lain, the woman from the committee. She was pleasant and quiet and her dark eyes were mysterious pools that held him in place when she talked. He was drawn to her and he’d discreetly asked around about her and he now had some of her story.
He was also thinking about weapons and new long - distance ships capable of traversing the galaxy and landing on Zellhigh, unwanted and unannounced. He needed to keep the momentum that had built up over the last few months and use the people’s zealous energy toward creating an army like no other. There needed to be weapons to attack and also there needed to be defensive weapons to repel. If he could help it, what happened to Triolux North would never be repeated.
The believers were smart; they thwarted the defenses that others had employed in the 18 year interval. This had happened on two other planets that Tee knew about. He’d been reading about the second wave attacks. The believers were experts at cloaking devices and the second wave blindsided the occupants once again. The invaders must have invested a lot of time to study the defenses because they had preprogrammed their offensive ordnances to pinpoint any weapons they deemed a threat. The inhabitants were destroyed. In the two cases that Tee knew about neither of the inhabitants ever rallied themselves back after the second attack. They slipped into planets labeled dangerous and unruly and basically were places to avoid.
That thought plagued Tee and so when he met with the committee his heart was heavy and he expressed his concerns in great detail. If they failed in their attempt to invade and re-educate the citizens of Zellhigh the wrath to befall Triolux North would be unbearable. They would join the ranks of the dangerous, unruly to be avoided. “With no hope in the foreseeable future,” he sat down hard and worried his hands. “We must copy them. We need to study their defenses. We need to build our defenses in stealth and with the assumption that they are watching, and,” he held a finger in the air for emphasis, “we need to accelerate our timetable to half that of the eighteen years. We must strike when least expected.”
A grumbling, seat - adjusting shuffle went around the table. “And it’s come to my attention that there are those compiling a file of the faces captured of the men who committed the atrocities. Furthermore this group of our fellow citizens is compiling the file to release a number of the miniature finders that are used with armies these days. Devices, as small as a fly, that penetrate their victim’s skull and kill them. To track and kill every face on the file with surgical precision does sound plausible. We,” he ran his hand with a pointed finger around the table in a sign of inclusion, “all understand this sentiment. I don’t plan on stopping this group so much as counseling them. By becoming our enemy we create a threat in ourselves that violates everything we have held sacred. Is forgiveness expedient? I think not. Is retribution? Perhaps, but what good comes from having your enemy conquer your mind and your heart and destroy your heritage?”
Lain spoke up. “Some of the men watched as their daughters were gang raped. Others were forced to watch as their wives were made to do unspeakable things. It’s not their heritage they wish to preserve, Tee, it is a speck, a modicum of dignity. They are bent, they are broken, and there is talk that perhaps you didn’t have any skin in the game.”
Tee was watching Lain move and, lost in her eyes for a moment, he didn’t actually hear her words. But then they slowly sank into him and his shoulders fell and he looked at his hands. “Those men have a right to think what they will of me. It’s true I didn’t suffer as they have. We must take into consideration their thoughts and their feelings and discuss it with an open mind. We need to have a representative of this group. Not to dissuade or try to reason them to change course, but to include. It’s only fair. This is what we do on Triolux North. We are foremost an inclusive people.”
Without trying to raise himself to any height Tee was lifted by the people as they heard that one of the husbands and one of the fathers were admitted to the committee and were equal in stature to all others. It was the way of the greater community and this decision was considered one formed from wisdom. Lain, too, felt Tee was an honest broker and though she wasn’t ready for any man to touch her she felt warmth for Tee Calmwater and that was unexpected. And she knew her attackers had their faces recorded by a security device outside her apartment. Her feelings were mixed.
With the new members of the committee not much had changed as to accelerating the timeline. But Tee, sensing a need to occupy the men who had seen horrible things done to family members, put them with the engineers charged with setting up defenses here on this planet. The defenses were to also include Triolux South, their sister planet, and their two closest moons Talium Nine and Ventoris #6. This action was for men in grief. These guys needed to do something with their anxiety and sorrow. As they installed sensors to detect any object landing on so much as a square inch of the moons and their sister planet they seemed to be recovering. It was not a sprint, but a marathon.
The sensors were in a series and when one wa
s tripped a small group of A.I. land mines would migrate to the geographical area and make sure the threat was real. If it was deemed a true intruder the ship, regardless of size, would be blown to bits by a swarm of mines. This would alert the air defense as well as all other forms of protection. The thinking wasn’t that the first ship detected and destroyed would be the leading edge of a full invasion, but would be an exploratory, information - gathering mission. Stop that and they would be uninformed.
Unknown to the believers of Zellhigh was the fact that the defenders already had one of their earlier ships. Blood samples showed a large amount of an unknown drug in the bodies of believers. It was assumed to be a drug used in the enhancement of muscle mass as well as to increase aggression. The believers were superior in strength to the men of Triolux North as well as unstoppable in their anger. There was no reasoning with these men, they were transfixed, almost hypnotized in their bloodlust.
This was of course the least of the information given up by the possession of the sunken ship. There was a plethora of knowledge gained in the form of technical advances that leapfrogged the engineers years ahead of where they were. The believers had technology that thwarted any and all known signal - gathering methods, radiation signals, air disturbance, and light blockage, sonar, radar, and temperature changes. That invisibility made them the beasts that they were.
Knowing what a force has and deciphering its components and functions are two different things. The repair manuals at various stations on the ship were their Achilles heel. The entire scientific and disciplined community was already improving on what they had found and devising strategies to use the same technology to hide themselves. And another group was using the cloaking to actually attract their offensive weaponry. Their invisibility would be a magnet, a literal attraction as a moving target to the offensive army of the Triolux North.
As these advances promoted the people’s confidence a crisis was on the horizon for the life - extending plankton that loomed over everyone. The hope that the horticulture specialist would be able to encourage plankton growth was not yielding any significant progress. All kinds of test tube fertilizers were being manufactured. As the studies deepened the realization that the discharge from the animals known as Waterfalls, the creatures that mimicked rock formations and dribbled water across their bulk to hydrate were the source of the nutrients that the fed the plankton.
An immediate halt was called on the reaping of the creatures and another high protein source was to be found in the future. Now studies leaned toward increasing the production of waste associated with the Waterfalls, technically named Hydreniatusses Sicut Zonam. Without the harvesting of the creatures their population should increase and that in and of itself should help grow more plankton. But, the creatures were not prolific in reproduction. Their harvest was sustainable and a lot of their natural habitat had been taken by development. All of that had to be reversed or amended and quickly.
And of course - nothing is free.
Chapter 6
Stage Two
Lain gave birth to a girl in early spring. It was a time of new growth and hope. Tee proposed to Lain four days after the newborn was named. Lain knew Tee to be the most cautious man she had ever met. His lack of spontaneity and risk - taking were not attractive to her, but they held expanded attraction to the mother she had become. And so it was that her mothering instinct told her Tee would be overly protective. She also harbored a secret resentment that he had waited in her early pregnancy to make sure the unborn child was female before he began a full commitment and serious pursuit of her. Some of the men were having a hard time with their women having male offspring. The abuse was remembered in the child’s face. This new miraculous life was by all manner of reason and decency innocent.
“The child is to be called Lacy after my mother. My mother’s name is Lucilla but everyone calls her Lacy. Her middle name will be Tan, after my father’s name which is Tanner. Her last name will be Calmwater and you will be her father from this day forward. Do you accept those terms, Tee Calmwater?”
“Yes, Lain.” He was looking at a false island being constructed from rubbish and new farm land. The hope was that the island would serve as a home for a new pod of Waterfalls. This would save on relocation and destruction of residential housing and park property.
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”
“I’m thrilled.” He looked up from his desk and their eyes met.
When Lain first moved in with Tee she was timid with this change. Her personal touches came out like early flowers, shy and unsure of the temperature. Now that the days were beginning to turn into weeks her confidence expanded and Tee would find himself standing before what was once a bare wall and see it littered with works of art and family mementos. It was a metaphor for what he felt in his personal life. He hadn’t known how empty and unfulfilled his life had been until he had Lain next to him in the bed and Lacy flailing on a nearby mattress.
Tanner, Lain’s father, had fashioned a crib out of driftwood found on the eastern shore of the Sea of Tri. Having a family was a joy to Tee. He wasn’t used to it. Lain’s parents accepted him and having this adopted clan filled him on a social level all the more. He knew Lain was not in love with him. He did believe she would support him as a wife and in time he hoped she would know his heart and see the feelings he had for her were genuine. As crude and ancient as it sounded, he thought his intellect surpassed that of Lain’s while her beauty surpassed his being handsome. In that unnamed and seldom spoken line of logic he reasoned all was fair and each of them was equally compensated.
And so the weeks became months and one day Lacy said, “Da da,” while looking into Tee’s eyes. A well of emotions swelled in his kind smile and a mist momentarily visited his sight. He was in awe of all he had and out on the streets he was met with respect wherever he ventured. His life, once empty and recently threatened, had come full circle. He was accomplished at home and at the office.
Lain heard her daughter say “da da” to Tee and she watched as his face hid nothing. He was a soft man and where once that had been a distraction she was changing. She was beginning to realize that men who use their mind more than their back are often soft. They exercise thought over muscles. She was looked upon with envy by her old crowd. She had snagged Tee, the man who had organized their recovery and was implementing their revenge.
With those words, “da da”, Lain had been moved a step closer to Tee. He was beginning to be the knight in shining armor, albeit in a used Airlite with a dented sidecar. This thought moved her to endearment and then at that exact moment the warning sirens sounded and she and Tee met each other’s eyes.
“Take Lacy to the tunnels. Find something to sedate her. You must hide until you hear from me or at least four days have passed. Do you hear me Lain, four, not three days? They will be changing their tactics this time around. ”
Lain was shaking. Her mind spilled images she had worked so hard to suppress. Her stomach felt sick and she grabbed Lacy and went into the bathroom to rummage in the medicine drawer until she found something to sedate the child. Tee came up behind her and held her tight for a moment and then turned and left. She heard the front door close.
There were no weapons actually made. They were in the developmental stage. The only devices implemented were the sensors on their sister planet and the two moons. He wondered what was happening as he entered his office and was met by Bleab, the electrical engineer. “The mines on Ventrois #6 have gone off in four areas simultaneously.”
“What does that mean?”
“We’ve dispatched a ship to do a reconnaissance and we’ll know something any minute.”
“Is there an invasion?”
“We don’t know.”
Outside the office the alarms were still sounding and Tee hoped they hadn’t petrified the inhabitants with a false alarm. Bleab turned away from Tee and held his hand up to his ear to listen carefully to a report that had come in from the observation ship. F
our small satellites from Zellhigh with roving wheels for relocation and observation had landed simultaneously on Ventrois #6. The autonomous devices were built to spy on Triolux North and send reports. They were now scattered pieces of junk electronics the mines had eliminated.
Bleab sent out an order to quiet the alarms. Tee made an announcement to the citizens explaining what had happened. He told them they must be diligent in their preparations for an invasion. All timelines were now accelerated and a heavy emphasis would be placed on the defensive posture of Triolux North. He also congratulated the men of Triolux North for their superb job of wiring Ventrois #6. After the announcement he walked into the maintenance tunnel closest to his house calling out for Lain. After an hour she came out of hiding. She was drained and pale. Tee held her in that dusty atmosphere until he felt her cheeks begin to warm.
“We’re safe for now. I’m going to call for a mass production of personal lasers for every adult on our planet. We’re not going down without taking as many of those animals as we can.”
Soberness befell the Triolux people. The mental stress put on them caused a rash of pills to be dispensed. Substance abuse, a rare offense before the invasion, began to rear its ugly head. Nerves slowly repairing themselves were once again frayed. Tee was beginning to rethink his former view of rehabilitation in regard to the believers. He wanted to see them choke on the words of Adim and suffocate on its sacred pages. His inability to fully protect Lain and Lacy came home to roost on his shoulders. He opened his mind to Alex and expressed all his concerns in a flow of uncharacteristic emotions. Alex told him if all options were open a device could be delivered to Zellhigh that would disturb their orbit and ultimately destroy the inhabitants of that planet.
Ths Sacking of Triolux North Page 3