Considering the conversation closed, Hastelloy focused his attention on the other lines to determine if he indeed chose the quickest line. Of the three, his was the shortest, but the one in the middle appeared to move at a quicker pace. The line on the far right was stopped completely. Counting his blessings he wasn’t in that one he began to close his eyes and wait patiently when a subtle activity at the front of the third line captured his attention.
A family of six: a male, an attractive female, and four offspring were at the head of the line. A guard distributing bowls of stew stood with his arms folded across his chest, looking directly at the female. The male gave an affirmative nod while he looked straight down at his feet. With that motion, the food distributor handed his ladle to the male, grabbed the female by the arm and ushered her behind a row of tents.
There must have been a large campfire roaring on the other side of the tents because while Hastelloy couldn’t see the guard and woman directly, their shadows were cast against the tent. The guard stripped the woman bare and forced her to bend over and grab the tent pole in front of her. The guard then proceeded to have his way with her.
This was not like the tender procreation ritual his crew witnessed while captives of the slave traders. This was violent and disgusting. The only one deriving any pleasure from the act was the guard. The woman appeared to be in utter agony, which was reinforced by the occasional screams Hastelloy heard coming from that direction.
Anger filled Hastelloy’s heart and the impulse to do something about it nearly overtook him. Hastelloy looked anxiously at her mate with an anguished glance that insisted the man must do something about the violation of his loved one. Hastelloy’s heart sank as he watched the poor man busy himself and the offspring with filling their food bowls.
Soon the muffled screaming and grunting stopped and the guard returned with a vile smirk. The female staggered back to her family looking rather dazed and wounded. The three oldest children each carried two bowls, while the male put his arm around the female and gave her support as she tried to walk back to their tent. Not a word or even a glance was exchanged between the two. They both understood the situation and the sacrifice that needed to be made for the greater good of their family. The nobility and honor the pair displayed was simply breathtaking.
Suddenly not feeling the least bit hungry, Hastelloy left the line and walked toward the music and laughter he heard earlier. As the joyous sound grew louder he hoped the festivities would draw his mind away from what he just witnessed.
He emerged from an alleyway onto the main thoroughfare to see a band of flutes, drums, and various stringed instruments playing. The musicians in the band looked as if an executioner was standing over them. Hastelloy surveyed the exuberant crowd and was disturbed to realize they were all soldiers with slave girls at their sides or sitting on their laps.
Each of the comfort women carried hollow stares as they endured the soldiers fondling them at will. One woman returned to a table carrying a tray full of drinks. A soldier grabbed her by the crotch causing the maiden to spill the drinks down the front of her dress. The men seated around the table erupted with laughter.
The soldier who did the grabbing stood up and proceeded to taunt the poor girl about her wet clothing. To remedy the issue, the soldier drew his sword and cut away the woman’s clothing. The men seated around the table howled and rooted for their man while the women seated on their laps tried to look away.
The sight of a naked female suddenly excited the soldier. He spun her around and forced her over the table top and raped her from behind. The cheering section exploded with excitement. Soon each man around the table followed the example with his own woman.
All around the room the laughter and cheering continued while the band dutifully played their tunes. It all was too much.
Hastelloy’s rage took over his finely tuned self-control. He marched back to the food line area with hatred in his heart and the need for action on his mind. He grabbed a pail of water and extinguished the campfire, and then took a concealed position behind the rape tent and waited.
It didn’t take long for a guard to identify another victim. The guard pulled aside a lovely young woman and made his way around the corner, and into Hastelloy’s waiting arms. Out of the darkness he delivered a swift punch to the throat; crushing the rapist’s windpipe. No more grunts or sounds of any kind would be forthcoming from him. Hastelloy then delivered three knee thrusts directly to the man’s groin.
Hastelloy would have loved to drag out the bastard’s demise but he needed to make it quick. He grabbed the man around his throat, pulled him in close so their noses almost touched. He looked straight into his victim’s eyes and he squeezed.
The man’s jaw slowly dropped open and the look of sheer terror filled his face. Once life completely left the rapist’s body, Hastelloy released his grip and the lifeless form flopped to the ground.
During the ten seconds it took Hastelloy to commit his murder, the female did nothing. She attempted to speak finally, but Hastelloy knew his time was short. He took the stunned woman’s arm and escorted her back to the food line. The raping ritual was apparently nothing new as Hastelloy returning with the woman drew no attention from the other guards.
When he reached the food table, he calmly grabbed the ladle, filled a bowl for himself, and walked off through the crowd still waiting their turns in line. Without a glance toward the woman he just saved, Hastelloy navigated a roundabout way back to his tent. He entered and took a seat on the floor next to Gallono.
“How was your walk,” Gallono enquired. “I’ll bet it felt good to get out and finally do something.”
“You have no idea my friend,” Hastelloy responded, still struggling to contain the raging barbarian still loose in his mind.
**********
Dr. Holmes watched as Hastelloy took a break from his story to compose himself. He would allow the issue to come to the surface on its own time table, but Jeffrey was quite certain either the patient’s wife or daughter was brutally raped in much the same way as the women in his story.
As a helpless victim of the situation, Hastelloy probably did nothing. Instead, he created in his mind this scenario of being the hero and making things right. Dr. Holmes waited patiently and regarded Hastelloy with great sympathy and pity.
Chapter 28: Making Things Right
“Basically, you’re telling me you broke the law,” Professor Russell challenged.
“I corrected a mistake. A person was wronged and I set it right,” Alex rebutted.
The two paralyzed individuals had been arguing the virtues of Alex’s break in of the university server room for hours since Dr. Andre left to find help. The two were getting pretty good at talking without the benefit of moving their lips. There was still the occasional misinterpretation like ‘you’re uptight’ versus ‘you’re right,’ but it was manageable.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. You can’t rationalize it. You broke into private property and altered a data file owned by the university.”
“I agree, the act itself was illegal, but the objective and end result was good and decent. My brother was a straight A student in high school. He’s as smart as they come and his admission application was rejected because of a low reading score on the entrance exam.”
“You changed the results of a fairly taken test. If his score wasn’t good enough to get in, then those are the breaks. Your actions stole his admission slot from someone who did score well taking the same test.”
“Jeremy is dyslexic Professor. It takes him three times as long to read things as most people. If you saw his test results on the reading section you’d see he scored perfect on the first half and then he ran out of time and just went with option C for the rest.”
“Smart kid, going with C; on a four option multiple choice exam, C will be correct more than half the time,” Professor Russell added.
“You better believe it. He earned his PhD in astrophysics and now works for NASA.
If I didn’t alter his admissions file he would probably be a high school gym teacher, instead he launches rockets into space.”
“So, in your mind, the ends justify the means?” the professor asked.
“Damn right.”
“What about the person whose admission slot he stole? Maybe he would’ve done something great with his education but is now a gym teacher because of you? It’s a zero sum game here, Alex; your brother benefited from someone else’s loss.”
“I probably saved the university from yet another freshman who burns out partying and flunks out. I will say this though; Jeremy’s performance would be a tough act to follow. All in all, I’d say the greater good of mankind was served by my actions. Besides, it doesn’t really matter. This all happened a long time ago.”
“The pyramids, the Sphinx, and the room behind that door were made a long time ago too. They still matter a great deal. Like a stone thrown into a lake, our actions make ripples in every direction that last for eternity. The only difference is what size stone gets thrown.”
“Well, I threw a speck of sand in the lake of time; the pyramids, sphinx and that room were boulders the size of Mt. Everest by comparison.”
Professor Russell began hearing the faint sound of labored breathing coming up the ladder. It was finally time to conclude the discussion. “Those standardized tests are a load of bollocks anyway. I’ll take someone successful in real life over a stand out test taker any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
“You let me go on like that for two hours when you agreed with me from the start?” Alex grunted.
“Passed the time didn’t it?” Professor Russell teased. “Help has arrived, I think.”
“Hello . . . Dr. Andre . . . Frank is that you,” Alex called.
“Good lord, girl, sounds like you got a wad of cotton in your mouth,” Frank bellowed back. “I can’t make out a word you’re saying. Never fear though, help has arrived.”
“Took you long enough,” Professor Russell added. “Did you stop for some coffee or take in a movie along the way?”
“Aye, you try carefully lowering four large mirrors down a three hundred foot shaft without breaking them,” Frank protested. “Oh, and no need to come over and help me hoist the god awful heavy things back up now; it’s not like I’m tired or anything.”
“I wouldn’t, even if I could move at the moment,” the professor teased.
Chapter 29: There’s a New God in Town
Back in ancient Egypt Hastelloy waited patiently for his turn in the evening food line with his three crewmen. Tonwen made an astute observation. “There sure are a lot of guards here tonight. Usually it is just the servers and one or two others. I fail to see the purpose of the extra protection. Who is going to attack a man who sustains them and their family by distributing food?”
Hastelloy remained silent and looked around to make sure none of the guards paid any undue attention to him personally. He opted to keep his actions from the previous night to himself. To do otherwise would invite the rest of the crew to begin acting on rash impulses of their own.
“I heard one of the food servers was strangled to death last night,” Valnor commented. “Poor bastard, he wasn’t doing any harm to anyone. He was just doing his job by providing food for the masses.”
“Maybe he was trying to provide for the wrong mass,” Hastelloy said under his breath.
“What was that, sir?” Valnor enquired while turning back towards the captain.
Hastelloy gestured for the ensign to turn back around. “I said you’re up, or do you want to take a pass.”
The look on Valnor’s face showed he didn’t think those were the words Hastelloy said the first time, but it was close enough to raise doubt so he didn’t press the issue. The helmsman simply turned around, had his bowl filled and headed back to the tent. The rest of the crew soon followed and took their seats on the floor in the small tent.
Hastelloy devoured his portion even before he reached the tent. He took a seat and tossed his empty bowl to the side and cleared his throat to make sure he had everyone’s attention.
“I’ve been doing some thinking. Tomal did us a favor by putting me on the ground for the last week with nothing to do but recover and think.”
“I’ll be sure to convey your gratitude between punches to his nose when I get my hands on him,” Gallono said talking with his mouth full of dinner.
“I’m serious. His actions gave me the luxury of time to realize I’m going about defeating the Alpha the wrong way.” Hastelloy paused to let his foreshadow of a change in plans settle in among his crew before continuing. “Since this whole ordeal began, I’ve made snap decisions without much forethought: the fleet battle, the duel between our two ships in this system, the landing site selection, coming ashore, getting captured, and so on. I’ve gotten lazy in the long term strategy portion of my command responsibilities, and that stops right here, right now.”
“I’m not sure I follow you, captain,” Valnor tried to reassure him. “Changing the frequencies of the gravity coils so we can control them took a great deal of forethought and planning. Plus, we haven’t seen anything to suggest the Alpha noticed the alterations. To me it looks like we’ve finally seized the initiative.”
The captain smiled inwardly. The young ensign had a lot to learn and class was now in session. “While I was laid up last week, I couldn’t shake the feeling I needed to be doing something. Then it dawned on me that there wasn’t a single thing I, or any of us, can do to further our current plan of attack. All we can do is sit, wait for the Alpha to move their control equipment into the main chamber, and hope we can finish the frequency rewiring.”
“So the question on your mind is what happens if plan A goes tits up at the last minute?” Gallono asked with a twinkle coming to his eye. “I’m sensing a plan B coming out of that beautiful mind of yours, and if you’ve spent all week hatching it then young Valnor here is about to witness something really special.”
“I’m well beyond plan B my friend,” Hastelloy began. “The only thing keeping the Alpha in a strong position on this planet is their god status with this Sigma species. We’re going to turn that strength into a weakness.”
Hastelloy reached into his bedroll and pulled out the navigation unit. He tapped a few buttons and made a holographic map appear in the middle of the group. The map was initially focused on the location of the work camp, but quickly widened to show a thousand miles in all directions. Next a bright red triangle was set on top of an island roughly 700 miles to the northwest of their location.
“This is a volcano; a big one. The basic geological surveying capabilities of this device detected a pending eruption that’ll occur mid day tomorrow. All the readings point to the eruption being a particularly large and violent one. So large in fact, that the fallout might easily be mistaken as the wrath of the gods by these primitives.”
“If that’s the case, the display over the next few weeks will be impressive, but won't the Alpha hoard all the credit since they are already considered gods?” Valnor cautioned.
Hastelloy turned off the device, hid it again and continued describing his plan. “Only if we let them. On the other hand, if we manage to get out in front of this thing in the right way, it’ll be the work of a new god, a more powerful god - our god.”
“I like it!” Gallono beamed.
“Well I do not,” Tonwen immediately protested. “You plan to set yourself up as a god to these people? Are you out of your mind? This plan violates every aspect of the noninterference directive you have so vehemently defended until now.”
“I’ll admit that was my first instinct,” Hastelloy confessed, “but as it turns out, adhering to the directive yields the ideal solution. A god who is seen can never quite live up to the hype. Witness Mosa’s reaction at seeing the Alpha; she was less than impressed. A god who is unseen carries far more fear and power through mystery. That said, an unseen god needs an emissary to carry his message to these people. I . . .
”
“Absolutely not,” Tonwen interrupted. “Even you acting as this emissary is an intolerable act of interference.”
“Me? No, no, I carry way too much baggage with these people to deliver an effective message for the god. In fact, none of us will be this prophet. We need someone who is on our side, has notoriety with the leadership of these people, and has enough access to Pharaoh to deliver the first message at a specific time tomorrow afternoon.”
The glow on Gallono’s face vanished in a flash. “No! I hate this plan. Tomal’s been absorbed into his own world of power and opulence. He can’t be trusted to help our mission anymore. How can you even think . . .?”
Gallono stopped talking when he noticed Mosa had entered the tent. She surveyed the room slowly, and finally settled her gaze on Hastelloy. Without mispronouncing a single syllable in Novan she said, “Is now a good time to discuss what I want from you?”
Hastelloy stared down his three crewmen in a manner that left no doubt the time for debating his plan was over. It would proceed as he saw fit. Hastelloy then rose to his feet and gestured for the three men to allow their guest some space.
“My dear, your timing couldn’t be better. Please have a seat, we have much to discuss.”
Light as a feather, Mosa floated down to the ground and sat on her knees directly across from Hastelloy.
Hastelloy worried, based on his performance against Mosa a week earlier, if he was up to the task of manipulating Mosa to play her part in his plan. He remembered all too well the formidable mind and verbal talents she displayed. The captain knew what he needed to get from Mosa, but leading her there while making it appear as though he was doing her a favor was the real challenge.
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