The Cor Chronicles: Volume 04 - Gods and Steel

by Martin V. Parece II

“What did you have to give the Seven?”

  “I’d rather not discuss it now to be honest, but there was plenty of talk of exclusive trade rights of certain goods to them individually,” Rederick said as he downed his next goblet of wine. “More importantly, I had to guarantee lands, hereditary lordships, and taxes.”

  “I expected as much,” Cor replied, still only halfway through his first drink. It really was too sweet.

  “Yes, but the problem is that I had to grant lands and titles that already belong to some of our people. How do you think that will sit?”

  “I don’t see the problem,” Cor answered, and the look he was paid with showed him that Rederick hadn’t really wanted an answer. The damage already done, Cor continued, “Look, you may just have to put it to them plainly. Without the Seven’s help, we lose the Shining West to Nadav, and we have no future. If we can defeat Nadav, join Losz to Aquis, there will be plenty of land and titles to go around. You can perhaps double their grants in size if not wealth, but that will come. We’re in desperate times, Rederick.”

  “And they call for desperate measures,” Rederick sighed, pouring even more wine.

  “How much do you plan to drink?”

  “As much as it takes to send me to into oblivion, just for one night.”

  “You’re a big man. It might be faster to bathe in it.”

  Rederick laughed so loudly that it threatened to shake the stone walls around them, and his face was already tinged red. As he poured himself more wine, he said, “I have so many questions for you that I don’t know where to begin.”

  “Try the beginning,” Cor replied, placing his goblet back on the oak desk.

  “Very well,” he said, and as he placed his own wine back on the desk, he seemed instantly sober. “How do we do all this? Cor, you’re the person I trust most in this world. I’ve listened to you at every turn, and some damn way, you’ve been right every time. But how do we kill Nadav once and for all? Even if you can reach him, what’s to stop him from returning to Ghal as he did before?”

  “I will kill him this time,” Cor said with finality. “I’ll figure it out. I just need some time.”

  “You better, because we’re all depending on you – me, Aquis, Thyss, your son. Then perhaps we can have peace. We can rebuild everything that has been lost over the last year.”

  “We’ll have to deal with the Loszians, those that are left,” Cor mused.

  “Yes,” agreed Rederick, “and I see little choice where they’re concerned.”

  “Kill them all?” Cor asked. While the thought had crossed his mind, he had rejected already. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Rederick, a priest of Garod and a fighting man – a paladin – considered it, but somehow, it didn’t seem in the man’s nature.

  “I wish we could,” Rederick sighed, again reaching for the wine, “but it wouldn’t be right. They’re a wretched people, evil and immoral, but genocide is a great sin. I won’t murder a people for what they may be capable of. I will have to judge them one at a time. I might tell you; a similar discussion was had years ago regarding the birth of a Dahken babe near Martherus.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Cor replied quietly, and he endeavored to remain as passive as possible. A thought occurred to him, and he cocked his head. “How do you know?”

  “Oh, I knew of your existence, but the decision to let you live was wholly Queen Erella’s. At length, Palius of course tried to take other action, but you were too powerful.”

  A sudden guilt tried to wash over Cor at the realization that he had murdered someone who held the power to kill him at birth. But even as he remembered the events of that morning, the rage he felt at Erella’s stubborn decision washed the guilt away, and he felt nothing but satisfaction. “How did you know about the discussion between Palius and Erella?”

  “Oh that. Palius kept very extensive records on everything he did. I can’t say he was a good man, but I’m not sure he wasn’t an evil man either. I think he always did what he felt he must.” Rederick paused for a moment and gazed across the table at Cor; it seemed the wine finally began to addle the man’s mind and senses. “I know at the end he regretted every action he took against you.”

  “When are you going to tell them?” Cor asked after a few minutes of silence had passed between them. Seeing Rederick’s confusion, he clarified, “The nobles – when are you going to tell them about the changes to come?”

  “As soon as I figure it out,” Rederick glumly replied. “I don’t have a clue. For Garod’s sakes, let’s not cause any trouble until we know we’re going to live through this. Even if we do, what’s to stop some other Loszian from doing what Nadav has done? As long as their gods exist, is that not a danger we always face?”

  “It is,” Cor agreed with a brief nod. “I think we have some time. What I know of the gods, they will not have the power to do such again for a long time, but eventually, it will happen again. Somehow, I must end them.”

  Rederick’s laughter boomed and echoed through his suite. “And how do you intend to kill gods, my young friend?”

  Cor smiled wryly with his answer, “One problem at a time.”

  Rederick said nothing else for a good while, and Cor was happy for the break in the conversation. The king seemed much smaller now than usual, as he seemed to have almost deflated as he drank, much like the sails of Western galleys that no longer caught the wind. Cor was just preparing the take his leave when Rederick asked one more question, “Why you?”

  The Dahken stood as he considered his response, “Because I don’t trust anyone else to do it.”

  22.

  Eureka! I admit that it’s cliché for me to use this word at this moment, but the meaning holds true for me just as it did for Archimedes and Gauss after him. The simple fact is I have found it. I’ve found it all. It took weeks of work on my part to assimilate all the information, all the data and set it in my mind in the correct order, but I finally pieced it all together the right way. I know everything about this world’s past, how it happened and – most importantly – who is to blame.

  There was an insane amount of experimental data, tests and studies performed here, virtual mountains of virtual paperwork that I had to sift through, organize and understand. Were it not for my “jack of all trades” scientific upbringing, I likely would have not understood most of it. Fortunately, I know just enough about science – physics, genetics and a number of other fields – that I could more or less follow what was done. At least, I understand the purpose, the beginning and the conclusion.

  But it’s not just the ends that matter; the means are just as important or even more so. Genetic manipulation was long outlawed on Earth and the Outworlds, by both SACA and the EMC. Sure, Darwinian principles still apply from the standpoint of natural selection breeding out weak traits, especially in the new colonies. But I’m referring to the direct scientific modification of genes for whatever purpose. I know Admiral Zheng has his own theories of eugenics, but I’m sure this has nothing to do with improving mankind for mankind’s sake. This had to do with war, plain and simple. He somehow believed (believes?) that since nukes are now unavailable to him for use, he could have taken back Earth, maybe even wiped out the entire EMC with what he created here. He used SACA citizens, colonists, as lab specimens.

  It’s absolutely incredible that any of this happened or that anyone would go along with it. On the other hand, I suppose they didn’t have much choice in the matter; I didn’t. I suppose that, as scientists, the entire affair as it unfolded was fascinating to them. This whole world presented new possibilities, a puzzle to be pieced together, and they got so wrapped up in that, they ignored those that would try to use it to their own ends. Reading, seeing and hearing their own journal entries, it’s clear to me that they were all simply naïve or at least turned a blind eye to be involved in the science of it. By the time they knew what was happening, they were already too far gone.

  Every child learns history in primary school, and there is a
heavy focus on the formation of SACA – how Curtis Stillwell brought together the United States, China and a small handful of other nations. Stillwell had a vision for mankind, for the future. He believed that we were guaranteed to extinguish ourselves, if for no other reason, due to the rate at which we consumed Earth’s resources. Designs for the colonization crafts had already been completed, but Stillwell demanded that a Constitution of sorts be drafted before any further steps were taken. As a child, the history books make it seem like it was so easy, but as I grew older, I came to know that the deliberations went on for months. Stillwell demanded democracy, sustainability and non-interference with any life we found among the stars. The nations involved had their own demands, and it all had to be brought together.

  I grew up believing in the inherent goodness of SACA and the Service – a true patriot I suppose – much to my father’s dismay. A Chinese man from Taiwan, he had his own preconceptions about a government that had a strong military backing, especially with the influences of the old People’s Republic of China. As I entered the Academy and then the Service, I shrugged off those concerns, perhaps blinded by the brass and spit-polish of it all. Even as I became involved in Arcturus V and the study of what happened here, I didn’t see what was right in front of my eyes. It wasn’t until just recently, until I put this all together, that I realize just how right my father may have been.

  Vice Admiral Zheng Huojin has been around forever, or so it seems. I know he was born in China, but I’m not sure what city. Supposedly, he was a young man, a card carrying member of China’s Communist Party before he joined the Service. He rose quickly and has commanded Fleet Special Operations for decades. He never stays put for more than a few days or a week, constantly using the Lin Zexu to go from Mars to AGS to wherever next he would go. As such he is sixty something while thousands of years have passed for the people on some worlds. Apparently, he has his own plans to avoid death, or at least stave it off, but that didn’t include turning himself into a god. That would have left him with virtually limitless power, but only around one particular sphere, whereas now he controls so much.

  It’s all Zheng’s fault, all his doing. He’s the one who originally removed all support, then quarantined Arcturus when the first “abilities” were seen. He’s the one who had the planet recolonized and hand picked scientists to study the effects. They became so caught up in their discoveries that they realized too late that Zheng orchestrated the whole thing. They had already used what they had learned to push to the next step – using their knowledge to make them eternal and powerful, so long as they remained on Arcturus V. That was of course the next step in Zheng’s plan; he wanted to see just how much power he could imbue into one person.

  He didn’t count on the gods suddenly deciding they weren’t going to play ball anymore. He didn’t count on a sudden sense of morality and outrage when they realized that they had been part of the experiment all along.

  I don’t know specifics, but Doc at one point began to suspect the admiral of having his own faction within the SACA fleet. As I look back at my time in the Service, I seem to remember furtive glances from officers that I had never met only seen. I seem to remember everything I did, said and logged was monitored by someone else, especially once I became involved in Arcturus V. I thought nothing of it at the time, and even now I may be jumping at shadows. I’m afraid of what’s hidden within them, though they may yet be nothing but shadows.

  This next part is a little hazy. I can only rebuild what I think happened, as I have no direct data, but Zheng needed to reboot the experiment. He’d lost control, and that’s when he sent the Others. Their job was to take control of the experiment. By the time Zheng went to AGS and back, a hundred years at least would have passed on Arcturus, but when he returned, the admiral found his new gods significantly unresponsive. The world had changed on the largest continent, as a new race of humans subjugated their way across it.

  It was about a year after the suicide bomber hit AGS that I stumbled across Arcturus V. We were only about two light years away when I ordered the Herbert Walker to a stop. The last two Steingartner jumps had been off a thousandth of a degree. Of course, a thousandth of a degree when talking about relative speeds up to forty seven times that of light across a singularity plane easily means disaster. We stopped for a few hours to recalibrate our computers and the drive itself when we picked up a transmission from Arcturus. It was a simple radio signal, decayed and mostly lost, but there was one clear word – “the”.

  I’d never heard of an Arcturus colony, and I received the same response from by bridge crew. SACA had sent hundreds of ships over the years to every star that could be seen from Earth, starting with the closest of course. We had only begun to scratch the surface, but Arcturus was close enough that some ship should have visited it at some point. It was listed in the system with the remark, “Nothing of interest. Cho.”

  As per standing orders, we investigated as soon as the Steingartner was ready to go. It only took a few months from our point of view. I found a planet teeming with human life, different but human. Both my crew and I seemed to walk around in a fog for several days as the astonishment of this took over. No ship anywhere had found intelligent life; in fact few planets had anything we would consider life at all. We gathered data for a week, and the longer we orbited, the more we realized that we hadn’t found new life at all.

  When we returned to AGS, Command sequestered my entire crew, quarantined to our ship and under communications blackout. We sat there for three months, going stir crazy and basting in our own near insanity, and finally the Lin Zexu docked. I watched her slink in quietly with no pomp or circumstance, and my stomach grew suddenly ill. Within hours began the debriefing of me and my crew, but in actuality it was an interrogation. After my third straight hour of being grilled by Zheng’s officers on the same topics over and over and over, I knew there was far more to Arcturus V than anyone wanted to admit.

  The rest of the story is rather boring to be honest. Zheng pulled me aboard his ship and, before I knew what was going on, I’d been promoted to the rank of Commander. He placed me in charge of a “scientific flotilla” for the purpose of studying the civilization on Arcturus V. I was now part of Special Fleet Ops, reporting directly and only to Zheng. Anyone in my crew or in the crews of the other ships under my command would meet the swiftest and harshest discipline if they discussed our mission with anyone outside of the flotilla itself. Seven ships, including the Herbert Walker, returned to Arcturus V. Over time, we discovered the cities under the cities, we located the inert underground power grids, and we found the facility off the eastern coast where I am now trapped forever.

  I checked the Fleet Command computer at AGS as well as the computers of every ship in task force for some information about Arcturus V. Always, I received the same response. “Nothing of interest. Cho.” Cho.

  Cho, John B.

  Current Rank – Captain

  Current Assignment – Fleet Special Operations

  Commanding Officer – Vice Admiral Zheng Huojin

  Nothing of interest… You son of a bitch. You can’t do these things to people. Everyone must know. I’ll make sure they all know.

  This facility that I’m trapped in for as long as it can keep me alive is the most advanced thing our scientists had ever seen. I suppose that’s what happens when you leave some of SACA’s best scientists to their own devices for what is, relatively, thousands of years. In addition to apparently limitless computing power, it also has various arrays for the receipt and transmission of data. I’ve already concluded that these have a lot to do with how I can act as the Chronicler, but I have no doubt I can use them for other purposes. I’m sure with a little time I can access their software or firmware or whatever makes them do what they do.

  Assuming there are no other skeletons in Zheng’s closet, I know the name of every SACA colonized system and Outworld. It’ll take some complex calculations, but again, with all this processing power at my finge
rtips, that’s only a matter of time. I’m going to summarize this whole thing and transmit all the data to Earth, Mars and every other colonized world and installation I know. Some of the transmissions will have to cross a hundred light years or even more (which is really nothing in galactic terms), and I’ll have to calculate the destination’s exact positioning based on rate of orbit and other factors. I’ll also need to make sure there will be no intervening objects anywhere across the path and account for gravity wells that may intervene. It’ll take some time, but what else do I have?

  The next thing, the hard part is explaining all of this to the people of Rumedia. I’ll have to Chronicle all of this in a way that they’ll understand. That’s going to prove difficult, but they deserve to know. They have the basic human right of knowing where they come from and why the world is the way it is. It’s ironic that I’ll be the deliverer of such knowledge, even though I myself have been denied the knowledge I seek.

  23.

  I stood before them in a circle of light that emanated from somewhere above, wearing my deck fatigues and boots. We also called them deck uniforms – essentially just a jumpsuit of gray-green material with my Commander rank insignia dead center on my chest. I always thought that was an odd choice for a rank as it was center mass, like a target for an enemy sniper. I suppose aboard ship one doesn’t really have to worry about such things, and there hadn’t been a ground war for hundreds and hundreds of years.

  They were all present, excluding the Others of course. Garod sat ostentatiously in his platinum throne, young and strong, and Dahk was immediately to his right, appearing as just a small puddle of blood. Red eyes glared at me from the darkness to my left, accompanied by a dangerous soft growl. I saw the flame of Hykan, a mere candle’s worth flickering in a soft breeze that only he could feel. All of the gods were there, that is all of the gods of Rumedia before the Others arrived, eleven in all.