Chains of Destruction

by Selina Rosen

  "What does she mean?" Taleed asked Topaz.

  "Concerning what?" Levits asked almost under his breath. "All the double talk about the Reliance's impotence, or the fact that she isn't human."

  Taleed looked from Topaz to Levits and back again indicating that he actually wanted both questions answered.

  "Poley, RJ and I are all the result of different scientific experiments," Topaz answered. No doubt feeling that further explanation would be wasted on Taleed. "When you have only a few people to run things, they sit around and talk and get things done easily. The fewer people you have the more quickly decisions can be made. The Reliance, however, has a huge chain of command. RJ obviously believes that this means . . ."

  "Why don't you just admit that you have no idea what the hell she was talking about?" Levits said with a laugh. He turned to look at Taleed. "Listen, Kid . . . Do yourself a favor. Just believe what she says, and do what she tells you. She knows exactly what she's doing, and I've rarely known her to be wrong. Those who don't listen to her damage themselves and everyone else." He shot a look full of hate at David, then got up and walked in the same direction the woman had gone.

  When he had gone Janad looked at David. "Why does he hate you so much?"

  David took in a deep breath and let it roll out slowly before he answered. "Because I betrayed RJ and the New Alliance and caused the death of the woman he loved."

  Janad didn't understand. Neither for that matter did Taleed.

  "I thought she was the woman he loved," Taleed said in confusion.

  "She is now," David said.

  "I don't understand," Janad said shaking her head. "If what you say is true, why are you here with them now? Why did they not kill you?"

  "Truly . . . I don't know." David stood up and walked away in the opposite direction from the way the others had gone.

  "What did he do?" Taleed asked Topaz.

  Topaz of course who lived to tell people what he knew told the whole story from the beginning of the New Alliance to their decent to this planet. The three child/adults listened intently, hardly even interrupting him with questions. It was only when the four of them had finished eating the entire lizard and Topaz had finished his story that he realized that it had been at least an hour, and the others hadn't returned.

  "Poley, where are RJ, Levits and David?" he asked.

  Poley pointed in the direction RJ and Levits had gone. "My sister and Levits are about half a mile away and have been engaging in sexual activities. They are quiet now, so I'm assuming they're done. "David," he pointed in the direction he had gone, "is about a quarter of a mile away, and is apparently chunking rocks into the river."

  Taleed got up and walked over to Poley. He walked around him looking at his neck. "I still do not understand . . . How can a man have his head severed from his body and go on living?"

  Poley made a face and rubbed at his neck.

  "I told you . . . Stewart made Poley . . ."

  "And RJ. I think I understand what RJ is, but . . . What is he? I don't understand."

  "He's a machine," Topaz said, "an artificial intelligence, a robot."

  "He can't be," Taleed said shaking his head. "He is a man. I see no difference between him and you or your friends."

  "I didn't say Stewart didn't do a damn good job on the boy," Topaz said.

  Taleed looked at Poley's hands. "You mean . . . you made him? Even his hands?"

  Topaz had noticed that there was something wrong with the boy's hands. For one thing he didn't take his gloves off even when it was hot. For another the other boy had to feed him, which meant his hands must be extremely crippled.

  "I didn't make him, Stewart did," Topaz answered.

  "But if you repaired him when he was broken . . . You could build him?" Taleed asked excitedly.

  "Well of course," Topaz said egotistically, although in truth he wasn't sure that he could.

  "Then you could make hands for me?" Taleed said raising his hands in the air.

  "That's bionics son, a whole different science," Topaz said. "One that is tricky at best and not really proven. You'd have to cut off your hands, and the hands you'd replace them with probably wouldn't do as much as the hands you have now."

  "He doesn't have hands," RJ said, startling them all both with her sudden presence and her statement.

  Taleed turned and glared at her, and Janad, realizing what this meant, suddenly dropped to the ground and prostrated herself before Taleed. RJ walked the rest of the way into camp, reached down and grabbed Janad by the belt of her loin-cloth and hauled her to her feet.

  "Get up girl, he's no god. Just some poor boy who's been maimed in the name of tradition," RJ said. "Isn't that true, Your Highness?"

  Taleed glared angrily at her and spat out, "If you knew all along, why did you wait till now to expose me?"

  "How would that have served me?" she asked.

  "How does it serve you now?" Taleed asked hotly.

  "Because you have something I want, and now I know I have something you want."

  "What?"

  RJ walked into the ship and appeared a few minutes later carrying one of the service droids. Its metal hands were dragging in the dirt. She threw it at the young prince's feet.

  "I have hands. Topaz has the skill. Want to talk about a deal?"

  Chapter Eleven

  Stratton stared at the clock on the instrument panel of the flyer. Bradley and Jackson had been gone a long time. "I wonder what's taking them so long?" Stratton yelled back at Decker where he stood at the top of the ramp just outside the open hatch.

  "I don't know, but this doesn't look good," Decker said.

  From the windshield she could see what he meant. The "curious villagers" were carrying more and more weapons and beginning to appear less like a welcoming committee and more like an angry mob. Suddenly a huge scream came from them as a whole assembly.

  "Get in the ship! Get back in the ship!" Stratton activating the switch that would close the hatch.

  Decker jumped in, barely escaping the spear that rattled to the floor beside him where he landed on his butt.

  "Shit!" Decker screamed as spears and rocks starting hitting the outside of the ship making it almost impossible to hear. He got to his feet and ran to where Stratton sat at the consol trying to get through to Bradley and Jackson.

  "Bradley, this is Stratton. We are under attack! Do you read? What the hell's going on? Damn it! If you can hear me, answer." There was nothing. "God damned magnetic pulses!

  "It may not be the pulses," Decker said looking at the hail of rocks and spears thumping ineffectively on the windscreen and swallowing a lump in his throat. "He may not be in a position to answer us."

  Stratton nodded. If Bradley had met with a similar welcoming party on the inside of the Palace, he and Jackson, were probably already dead. She made a quick decision and started powering up the ship.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Decker screamed. "They may still be alive. We can't just leave them here."

  "And they may already be dead. If we stay here, we'll be killed as well," Stratton told him. She got back on the com-link. "Bradley, we can't wait. We're lifting off. We'll come back for you."

  "This thing was made to take re-entry and meteor showers. Rocks and spears aren't likely to hurt it!" Decker screamed. "We can wait."

  "How long do you think it's going to take them to figure out that rocks and spears aren't going to damage us and go after tools? They have time and man power on their side. If Bradley and Jackson are still alive, we will come back for them. For now we're going to run and hide," Stratton assured him.

  "Fire the forward cannons . . ."

  "If I use the armaments we won't have enough power left to make escape velocity. The armaments on a skiff are for emergency use only!" Stratton said.

  "And this isn't an emergency!" Decker screamed.

  "Not yet," Stratton answered calmly.

  "Call Briggs. Report what's happening and send for reinforcements," Decker p
leaded.

  "Oh, yes . . . That's exactly what we all want to do – escalate the problems down here. You know how the Reliance deals with primitive uprisings. They send bombers in to hammer the place level whether we – or Bradley and Jackson are here or not." She lifted off as the natives scattered.

  "Then fire the cannons. If we aren't planning to go back to the Station anyway, what does it matter?" Decker asked.

  "I'm not going to cut our options. I'm not willing to burn out bridges we may need." She lifted off. "If we shoot them, how are we going to prove that we want to help them? If we wind up being stuck on this planet, we had damn well better find a way to get along with the natives. The last thing we want to do is make them more hostile than they already are." She flew the skiff away from the palace and the capital city.

  "In case you didn't understand, when we decided to defect, you were no longer in command," Decker said. "You left Jackson and Bradley down there to die."

  "Right now I'm in command of this skiff because I'm sitting in this chair and the only way you're going to get me out of this chair is to burn a hole in me like the one you burned in Hank. If they had it in their heads to kill Bradley and Jackson, they have already done so. If they are still alive, we will go back and get them. But we obviously aren't going to be able to sneak past anyone in this ship."

  Decker nodded his head in reluctant agreement.

  "Now buckle up. I'm setting this thing down," Stratton ordered.

  * * *

  Bradley looked at the ring of guards that had closed in around he and Jackson and then back at the King.

  "What is all this?" Bradley asked. He heard but ignored Stratton's frantic call sounding from the transmitter in his ear.

  "You said we would be cured," the King said. "We are not cured. Now you tell us you want the gold back. My people have traded with the Reliance in good faith for hundreds of years. Now you trade my people for gold and then order that we give the gold back to you."

  "Listen to me . . . The Reliance has indeed dealt in bad faith with you. I don't agree with what the Reliance is doing and neither do these people with me. That is why – at risk of our very lives – we have come here to tell you that the gold the Reliance has given you is tainted. It is the gold that is making you sick. If you will only think about it, you will know that what I am telling you is true."

  The King laughed, and the priests joined in. Then he stopped laughing and spoke angrily. "You think that since we do not have the technology of your people that we are stupid and simple minded. We are not stupid. We know what you are doing. You are trying to trick us so that you have everything and we have nothing. We will no longer make trade with the Reliance."

  "Good, you shouldn't," Bradley said. "Only listen to me. If you do not take the gold off your bodies and bury it in a deep hole far from your people, then you will die. You will all die."

  The King laughed again. "I cannot die; I am a god. My soul will simply be moved into the body of the Chosen One."

  The man Bradley assumed was the head priest shook with apparent excitement, then bent down and whispered excited words into the King/God's ear. The King's face at first looked amazed and then if it was possible more angry than before. He arose shakily from his throne and walked around Bradley and Jackson, looking them over.

  "So," he said at length. "This is the game that you play. You bring some illness here to afflict me, and then you kidnap the Chosen One so that when I die my soul will have nowhere to go. Your own evil shall be your undoing. Guards! Take their weapons and throw them into the dungeon." He stopped and glared into Bradley's face. "When your Captain returns my son, then I shall return you two."

  "We do not have your son," Bradley assured him. "Our Captain will not bargain with you; it isn't our custom."

  Jackson looked at him as the guards started to take their weapons, but Bradley shook his head. They couldn't fight their way out of here. Not right now. Even if they could Stratton had just informed him that she was leaving with the ship, so there was nowhere to run. Jackson let go of his weapon reluctantly and the guards started to lead them away.

  Bradley baulked, turned back to the King and tried once more, "We don't have your son!" The guards began to drag them out. "It's the gold which is going to kill you. Think about it! When did you get sick? Damn it, we are trying to help you! You don't understand the ways of our people, or you would know that by doing this we put ourselves at great risk. Why not remove the gold from yourselves and see if you don't get better? See if I'm telling the truth or not. What could be the harm in that?"

  "I will hear no more of your lies! Take them away!" the King screamed, waving his stumps dismissively.

  * * *

  The King sat on his throne with his head perched on one of his stumps thoughtfully.

  "What are you thinking?" the high priest asked Taheed.

  "What if . . . What if he's telling the truth, and it is the gold metal which is making us sick?" Taheed asked.

  "How could metal make a man sick? Has the gold metal of your office that you have worn since taking over from your father ever made you ill?"

  "No, but . . ."

  "Did not the gods speak through us saying that it is wholly good and right that we should trade our warriors for gold and cloth? This illness is something brought by the Reliance so they may now take back what is rightfully ours. The illness will pass, the gods have said so . . ."

  "Do you really think that they are responsible for Taleed's disappearance?" Taheed asked.

  "I do not know. I cannot be certain. I will ask the gods when I return to the Temple tonight."

  "While you are at it, ask where he is," Taheed commanded.

  "I will ask, but you know that such questions often have answers which are not easily read, for the gods answer in mysterious ways . . . I will leave now, and return to the Temple. I shall talk to the gods and perhaps have answers for you shortly."

  "Ziphed, my brother," Taheed called out to the priest's departing form.

  The high priest turned to look at the King. "Yes, My Lord?"

  "Why is it that I cannot talk to the gods? Would it not be more expedient that way? Wouldn't it be better if I asked the gods questions and they answered me directly?"

  "You do not have the gift – few Kings have. It is a gift more suitably given to the brothers of the King, to the priests. It is our calling. When we hear the voices in our heads we know that the gods have chosen us to speak with them and to tell those who cannot hear them what is their will." Ziphed bowed and then left.

  Taheed did not feel satisfied with Ziphed's answer. He got up and started to pace in front of the window. The fact that he felt well enough to do this proved – at least to him – that the alien's medicine was helping.

  "How can I be sure of what the gods say if they do not say them to me?" Taheed asked. "One day he tells me that my disease is caused by the gods because they're angry that Taleed has run off. Now he tells me that the disease is caused by the actions of the Reliance, and that my son has not run off, but has been taken. The man in the dungeon says he no longer works for the Reliance. He gives us medicine that – while it does not cure, certainly has made us feel better. He says the gold makes us ill." He noticed then that Yashi was nodding and grunting excitedly. Yashi held out his arms for the King to see, and the King noticed for the first time that Yashi was not sick. "Yashi . . . You do not have the sickness!"

  Yashi nodded more excitedly, and pointed to the chains on the King's neck and then to his own bare neck

  "Are you saying . . . Is that what you have been trying to say all along? Do you think it is the gold?" Taheed asked.

  The mute nodded his head vigorously.

  Taheed took the mass of gold chains from his neck and looked at them. He didn't feel any different, still . . . "If the priests say one thing one day and something else the next, then there is a chance that man is telling the truth. Who is to say that your council is not equal to that of the priests? If I am a god –
and I must believe that I am – then my own judgment should be as good as any priest's – or better. Yashi, take these chains and all other Reliance gold from the throne room and bury it in the palace garden. Then go into the city to Jarish the Jeweler who weaves reeds into fine chains. Buy from him enough of the gold-colored reed chains to take the place of the real gold ones. In this way the priests will never know that I did not heed their council. If I should get well while the priests remain ill, then the gold is poison and I will deal with the Reliance accordingly. "I begin to believe, Yashi, that I have been very poorly advised. If you and the man in the dungeons are correct, then I must think seriously what I should do – about many things. Perhaps I will tell the priests, and perhaps I will not. It depends mostly on what they tell me concerning what the gods have told them about my son."