The Houston bowed his head, feigning great sadness. He still refused to look Halifaco in the face. “When Kompanio left this place and the evil ones came, did not your people help them? And now that they have come again, did your people not flock to their aid? It fills me with great sadness that you cannot see the many offenses your people have committed against Kompanio.”
Halifaco stopped and glared at the Houston but did nothing. Isra watched his hands but neither of them went for another weapon. “I think that we are, again, off topic. Can we please return to the issue at hand?”
The Houston took a deep breath to puff himself up, going from despair to haughty condescension in an instant. He truly was the perfect politician, willing and able to display whatever emotions the situation called for while feeling none of them. He turned his head toward Halifaco. “This is the only discussion at hand. If they will atone, we will accept. If they will not, then we will use force. That is the will of Kompanio and the only law.”
This time Halifaco made no attempt to hide his intentions. He glared at the Houston and marched toward around the table toward him. The Houston pushed his chair back, readying himself for a fight but Isra, again, stepped in front of Halifaco, stared directly into his eyes, and said, “Sit down.”
He paused for a moment and took his seat on the other side of the table.
Isra sighed and left a pregnant pause in the room before she tried again. “The issue at hand…” She looked at The Houston, “Your city…,” and then at Halifaco, “and your people are both under attack from an enemy you have not seen in a thousand years, if ever. Your only chance for survival is to work together. You must put away this ancient and archaic grudge and provide a unified force against the outsiders. It is the only way. If you do not do this, you will lose your city. And your freedom.”
The Houston chuckled, “I have told you, there is no danger from outsiders. The sun will set and the Venganto will drive them away. You witnessed their power during a few minutes of darkness that the eclipse provided. That was but a blink of an eye. Venganto rule the dark night and when sun next arises there will be nothing left but ash.”
“And we have the forest,” said Halifaco. “We move through the trees without being noticed. Outsiders come, but they will die.”
Isra shook her head, “You do not understand. Outsiders will come again. They have weapons that can level this city three times before the sun sets. And once the city falls, it is only a matter of time before the whole planet is under their control. The forests included. Please. I want to help you.”
The Houston smirked. “We do not want your help.”
“Kompanio has given us everything we need,” added Halifaco.
Finally, thought Isra. They agree on something. In a weird way this was actually progress.
“And furthermore,” Halifaco continued, “If the outsiders wish to tear the city down, then they are truly sent by the Kompanio. If those gods of the past could see how this man and his people parade around their glorious city they would burn Titan to the ground.”
The Houston snarled, “This city was given to us by Kompanio. It is their legacy and a gift to their chosen people. It was not us who turned against them!”
Halifaco jumped up grabbed the end of the table with both hands and, with a show of strength that was impressive even in Titan’s gravity, flipped it so that it smashed against the ornate wood carvings on the wall. “We did not turn against them. You did! You soil everything they gave to us. This place, it is made filthy by your presence. I would rather see it all burn…”
For the first time, the Houston showed emotion that Isra believed was genuine. He jumped up with horror on his face and called at the door, “Soldato! Venu ci! Stop this man. Take him and throw him out!”
Three soldiers ran into the room and swarmed Halifaco. The leader of the forest people managed to repel one with an elbow to the face, but the other two were on him immediately and, after a short tussle and a fourth soldier running into the room, pulled his arms behind him and bound them with leather straps.
There was so much anger, so much hate in this room that Isra could feel it as a thousand tiny needlepoints on her skin. These two men would never come together. They wanted so much to see the other suffer that they would endure greater horrors to make it a reality.
Now bound, the soldiers marched Halifaco out of the room. The Houston stood up and held up his hand; the soldiers paused for a moment. “You cause me great pain Halifaco. I love you and your people. But you cannot see. You refuse to see. I will help you.”
Halifaco steeled himself for a moment and spat in the Houston’s face.
The Houston retrieved a small square of cloth from a pocket in his robe. “Put him with the others. When the Venganto drive the strangers from the refineries I expect him to be among the workers. Take him.”
Isra watched as the three soldiers started to walk Halifaco out of the ornate room. The two men were so alike. The only real divide was the fact that they held completely different and incompatible world views. In that way, they were perfect symbols for the people they represented. And that was the real tragedy. There was only one thing that kept the two people of Titan bent on destroying each other. Unfortunately, that thing was two very different perceptions of reality.
“Wait please,” implored Isra just as the soldiers were a meter or so from the door, “The issue at hand here is the refineries. We can find a way—”
The Houston dismissed her with a wave. “There is no point. This man, he refuses to see reason.”
“Then let us help,” Isra insisted. “There is so much we don’t know about how the refineries function. The truth is, neither of you know exactly how they work.”
The Houston sniffed. “The Kompanio commands—“
“Yes, yes,” Isra interrupted, “But do you know why? Our person researching the system is not entirely sure that they are refineries at all.”
The Houston said nothing, but a twitch in his mouth said that, as annoyed as he was by it, he really had no clue.
Isra turned to Halifaco. “Your people have been sent there to die for generations, but do you know what they are sent there to do?”
Halifaco shook his head.
Isra walked to the head of the table. “Then I suggest we build some measure of cooperation based on that, if nothing else. Combine forces and drive away the outsiders together, and we will try to provide some answers for you both.”
The Houston’s face quickly became the definition of severe indignation, “You would give sacred knowledge to this man?”
Isra snapped back, “And why not? Was it not you who wanted to help him and his people see the truth? Did you not just claim to love them? If the wisdom of the Kompanio could help them, would you deny that to them?”
The Houston started to say something but Isra turned to Halifaco and spoke before he got the chance, “And you, will you help protect this city and this world in return for some real answers? Not just words passed down but real answers to questions you and your people have asked for generations?”
Halifaco, his hands still bound behind him, took a moment to look at the soldiers holding him captive as if he were weighing a personal vendetta against the good of the planet. He turned to Isra and nodded.
“Houston, will you accept Halifaco and his people’s aid in return for the same?”
The Houston looked like he was chewing on something unpleasant but he bowed his head toward Isra.
“Order your men to unbind his hands and seal this agreement. The Perfiduloi and the Urbanoi will work together for their mutual survival and a greater understanding about their place in the plan of the Kompanio.”
Cronus squinted at the hologram of Vince Laban’s head floating over a projector near the keyboard of the Markee Supercomputer. “How much longer until the uplink is active?”
“We just need another hour to align the satellite. Innovation is on the other side of the m
oon at the moment. It just takes time.”
Cronus checked over his shoulder and looked back at the hologram. “I’m trusting you Laban. No tricks.”
“You have my word, Cronus. We won’t even look at the data. Your work on the Fall of Civilization and its causes is very valuable. The Corporation would never dream of interfering. The only thing we are interested in is the refinery schematics. They are easy to read, right? Light on the Old Earth technicalities?”
“Extremely. The data I’m sending you can be used to produce a holographic replica along with very specific readings about every piece and part in the whole facility. One could use this to teach a child to operate the refinery.”
Laban smiled. “That’s good to hear Cronus. As soon as the uplink is up, I authorize you to store as much data as you want on our servers.”
“And what about the refineries?”
Laban nodded slightly. “You have my word. We will only take what we can. It is in our interest to keep Titan the lush, beautiful land it is now. And as production increases, we can dedicate more resources to the maintenance and expansion of the terraforming project on Titan.”
Cronus touched a few icons in the air. “Send me notification as soon as the satellite is in range. Along with routing numbers and—”
Isra’s voice echoed through the corridors. “Cronus?”
Cronus switched off the holographic projector just as Isra walked into the chamber. She stopped at the catwalk and gave Cronus a quizzical look. “Cronus, what were you doing?”
“Nothing,” said Cronus, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “Just waiting for the data to compile. Taking another run at the complexities of the Code.”
Isra started walking across the catwalk. “Who were you talking to?”
Cronus looked back up at the screens if only to avoid her gaze. “Talking? I must have been talking to myself. I do that when I am working. I don’t even know it sometimes.”
Isra stopped walking. “Cronus, look at me.”
He did and immediately regretted it. Isra had the eyes of someone who could dismantle a person’s soul to see how it worked.
He couldn’t lie; she would be able to tell if he was lying. So he didn’t. “I was trying to find a safe place for everything I have found here. So that when the war you create erupts, it won’t be destroyed with the rest of the planet.”
Isra straightened up. “And what have you found?”
“Something incredible,” said Cronus.
“Tell me.”
He could no more hold back information from Isra at that point than he could resist a black hole’s gravity. “The Code. The quaternary set of numbers flowing between this computer and the refinery complexes. It’s simple and yet brilliant. The basis of all life; why would you not encode the instructions for complex organic chemistry—”
“Cronus,” Isra barked. “Please try to contain yourself and tell me exactly what you found.”
“It’s DNA,” said Cronus, resisting the urge to add ‘you ignoramus’ at the end.
Isra blinked a few times. “I do not understand.”
“That’s what I was trying to explain,” said Cronus on the edge of exasperation. “The Code is DNA written in numbers. Zero, one, two and three as opposed to A, T, G, and C. The essence of life is being transmitted at all times between these two locations.”
Isra’s mouth moved a little as she tried to understand what she had just had laid out for her. “But why?” she asked finally.
Cronus turned back to the screens. “Energy.” Then he spun around. He was wearing the glove like two metal vines twisting on his hand. He raised it in the air and a hologram of Titan appeared between them and the image zoomed in close and broke through the clouds until it showed a fly-over view of Titan’s forests. “We are nearly one and a half billion kilometers from the Sun. There is not enough energy to fuel a biosphere like this. But a thousand years ago, some genius figured out how to make Titan run on hydrocarbons.”
Isra shook her head, “How is that even possible? How could you physically burn enough hydrocarbons to power the entire planet?”
Cronus grimaced as the hologram stopped over the refineries and circled there, “Such narrow minds. Energy is all things. One need not burn the hydrocarbons to release their power. Life itself makes a refinery flare look like a dying candle.”
Isra peered at the hologram. “I still do not follow.”
Cronus was losing his temper. These meat-world humans… these people who lived in the so-called ‘real world’, had the gall to accuse his kind of having minds trapped by technology. Even someone as brilliant as Isra couldn’t free her mind to possibilities that the Universe presented.
Cronus got up and ran his hand through the holographic gas rising from the refineries, “What Viekko saw was not the gaseous waste product of refineries. It was the product. A gas thick with yeast, bacteria, and other microorganisms.”
Cronus twisted his hand and the hologram started flying over the forests again. “These microorganisms provide basic nutrients for the plants. The plants feed the animals that feed on the leaves. The humans feed on the animals and the fruits of the forest. The chain of life in microcosm…”
Isra's eyes widened. “...with Titan’s hydrocarbons at the base. I could not have conceived of anything like this.”
Cronus closed his hand and the hologram disappeared. “Now you know. Everything on Titan depends on the refineries. By ejecting the Corporation, we may have made things worse.”
Isra sighed. “No, the people of Titan maintained the system for a thousand years. They can once again. Can you create some way to ensure that the people of Titan have the ability to maintain the refineries themselves?”
Cronus thought for a moment. “The Transplanetary Energy tutorial. The one that I played for the Houston and his soldiers. It has everything.” Cronus opened his hand and the complex schematic of the refineries appeared again, “Using AI voice translation, I can take the instructions left behind and produce a step-by-step guide. Instructions so complete and detailed that it would tell them what valve to open and when.”
Cronus caught himself and closed his hand, causing the hologram to disappear. Of course he could do it, a hack and slicer with his skill. He had programs so advanced that the likes of Viekko could probably manage it. But he failed to see the obvious question. “Why do you need this, Isra?”
“I came here with the intention of giving the knowledge of this planet to the people of Titan. This information has hardened my resolve to do this. The people must be allowed to govern themselves.”
Cronus's mind went back where he saw Carr cut and left to bleed out on that field of horrors. The sight of Halifaco and the Houston’s faces were burned into his mind. There was not a single trace of shock, horror or even sympathy in their eyes. All they could see was death and they were comfortable with it. “Are they capable of that? Can they act beyond their own ignorance and hatred?”
Isra turned to leave. “I do not know. But it is no longer up to us. We can protect these people from the Corporation but we can never stop them from destroying themselves if that is what they intend to do.”
Cronus stared at the screen until Isra’s footsteps on the metal walkway faded. He waited a few more moments for complete silence. He reached over and activated the holographic transmitter and Laban’s face appeared once again.
Laban looked bemused. “Everything all right?
Cronus typed a few lines of code, “Perfect. A perfect little world. It just needs a place to be safe. Tell me the minute the uplink is active, Laban. I’ll make sure you get what you asked for.”
He switched off the transmitter and sat for a while. He shouldn’t feel guilty anymore; apparently Isra was willing to hand any and all dangerous information to every psychopath on the moon. Why couldn’t he do the same?
Of course, if Isra ever found out…well, at least he wouldn’t be alive long enough to
appreciate to true horror of it all.
When the world morphed into focus, the first thing Viekko saw was Althea’s face. At first, he was worried that it was just another dream, a fevered memory replayed by some demonic force in his own head to torture him. It had been an endless stream of them since he lost contact with reality near Halifaco’s base camp. He was lost for so long in that world, he started to wonder if he would ever get back. But then, there was Althea, standing over him like a guiding light to take him home.
“You gave me a shard?” asked Viekko.
Althea turned away to put something back in her bag. “I did. I’m sorry. You should have gotten one sooner. You were well lost to us when I found you.”
Viekko looked at his surroundings. By the plush, red wall coverings, he would guess he was in the palace. He started to get up but Althea rushed to stop him. “Don’t. Let the dermal mending gel do its work. If you are active too soon, you’ll just rip the wound open again.”
“Where am I?”
Althea brought him a cold pack. “A bedroom in the palace. Here, put this on your eye. The swelling went down, but you still look bloody awful.”
Viekko took the pack. He winced as it touched his swollen eye. “Hate to think I went and messed up my pretty face for ya. I was low on options at that point.”
“So you decided to let that marine use your head as a speed bag?”
“It worked, didn’t it? What happened to Carr anyway?”
Althea stopped what she was doing. The hand holding a syringe shook slightly. “He…he was killed by Halifaco…to prove he was ready to ally with The Houston.”
“Damn. I’m sorry.”
Althea laughed a little as she plugged the syringe it into a port on his medical regulator just below the shoulder. “No you are not. He was a bastard and you wanted him dead from the moment you met him. You’re not sorry. If anything, it is me who should be sorry.”
“Why do you say that?”
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