“For those of you who haven’t heard, I’m Allistor, the new Emperor of Earth. I came here today because I was told you were under attack from an alien race, and needed our help. That was clearly a lie perpetrated by Rajesh. He’s no longer in charge here. So let me start fresh with the rest of you, and see if we can’t all be friends.” He began to walk toward the prisoners as he spoke.
“All of you here, all of Rajesh’s people, have a chance to become citizens of Invictus, which is my princedom. Or, I guess, empire now. Whatever. All you need to do is swear an oath, and contribute however you can to the community. The oath is simple, and basically breaks down to promising not to hurt each other, and to support each other.”
He waited for that to sink in. For the next two minutes he gave the short version of his recruitment speech, outlining their basic laws, the penalties for breaking them, and the benefits of being a citizen. When he was done, he finished with, “I will give you all one day to consider my offer. Let me be clear. This Stronghold is now mine. If you wish to remain here, you will swear the oath and become a citizen. If you refuse, you’ll be given a week’s worth of food and water, a weapon, and an escort out through the gates. If a large group of you choose to leave, I’ll have my people secure a place for you somewhere nearby. You can build your own Stronghold, and we will leave you in peace. But you’ll receive no further support from us. You’ll need to be able to fend for yourselves.”
Looking at the prisoners, he asked, “Who’s your leader?”
A tall man maybe forty years old stepped forward. “I am Fayed, former chief of security” He met Allistor’s gaze without flinching.
“Good to meet you, Fayed. I presume that since you and the rest of these men did not fire, you’re not exactly heartbroken over the change in management?”
Fayed looked down briefly, an expression of shame flashing across his face. But it passed quickly, and he raised his gaze again. “We are not. Earl Rajesh had become… difficult. As I am sure minister Agni has already explained to you.”
Allistor just nodded. “I understand you’ve had some trouble with non-human neighbors. Would you like to show us where they are?”
Fayed nodded. “I would swear your oath, if you’ll have me. And join you in battling the jelly creatures.”
Allistor was glad to hear it. He looked around the room, first at the other fighters, then the bystanders. “Anyone else already decided to join us? We can administer the oath here and now.”
All but two of Fayed’s remaining men stepped forward. As did about twenty of the civilians, and Agni. When Fayed raised an eyebrow at the two holdouts, one of them shrugged. “I wish to hear the words of this oath, and see its effect on you. If it does you no harm, I will follow.” The other fighter nodded in agreement, along with several of the civilians.
“Fair enough.” Allistor motioned Helen forward, and she had all those who wished to become citizens step to one side. They repeated the oath after her, clearly surprised at its simplicity. A moment after the lights finished swirling around the new citizens, the two fighter holdouts and most of the rest of the others stepped forward, repeating after Helen as she gave the oath a second time.
While Helen took care of that, Allistor opened his UI and took control of the Stronghold. He saw that Rajesh had already added all the basic utilities, along with some luxury upgrades. Allistor added in a defensive dome and weapons along the walls, as well as the sensor system. He activated Nigel, giving him control of the facility.
When that was all taken care of, he addressed all the people in the room. “Those of you who have sworn, welcome to Invictus! Your first job is to spread the word about what happened here, and the opportunity I’m offering. Let everyone know to be… someplace big enough for everyone to gather, let’s say noon tomorrow.” He looked at the few remaining holdouts. “The rest of you are free to tell your version of today’s events as well. I’ve nothing to hide, and no interest in controlling you, your opinions, or your day to day lives. Take the oath, do what you can to support each other, or choose not to join us, and leave in peace.”
Turning back to the group of trainers, all of whom were from other worlds, he asked, “Any of you have any experience with gelatinous beings? We fought some slimes last year in a dungeon, but I don’t know if these are the same.”
Three of the trainers raised their hands and stepped forward. Allistor didn’t know any of them, not having had time to socialize with the new trainers much in the short time since their arrival. “I’m afraid I don’t know your names yet.”
The first one to step forward bowed his head. He was a gnome, maybe three feet tall and wearing leather pants and shirt with a leather sash over one shoulder that held several small knives and tools. “I am Ruddy, cousin to Selby.”
Allistor’s face lit up. “The gnomebarian! Survival trainer, right? Welcome to Invictus!” He smiled down at the diminutive trainer.
“That’s me. And I’ve had some dealings with the gelatins, as we call them. They are semi-intelligent, and tend to gather in clusters. Generally slow-moving, but hard to kill. Fire, ice, and lightning work best against them. Projectiles do little damage unless they are explosive. Melee weapons are ineffective against them.”
“Pretty much as we expected.” McCoy said. “Like the ones we fought in the Silo.”
Allistor focused on Ruddy’s first statement. “What do you mean by semi-intelligent? Can we communicate with them?”
Another trainer stepped forward, introducing herself as Ak’kash, a beastkin herbalist trainer that resembled a leopard. “When they first spawn, they are dumb as rocks. They act on pure instinct, moving about at random while seeking sustenance. As they grow, they get smarter, responding to various stimuli, including external threats. If they absorb a sentient creature, they also absorb a small measure of its intelligence. If these here have taken several humans, they may indeed have reached a level of intelligence that would allow basic communication.” Ruddy and the other trainer nodded their agreement.
“Alright, thank you. I can work with that.” Allistor motioned for Fayed and Agni to join him, moving off to one side of the room and sitting at a bench there. He indicated for both of them to sit as well. “Tell me about your interactions with them so far.”
*****
Baldur stood outside of a small, nondescript room, watching through a transparent force field as Odin finished his work on Loki. There had been no interrogation as humans would recognize it. There was no verbal interaction. No recording for court records, no polygraph machine to weed out truth from lies.
No, they could not afford to allow any hint of what was in Loki’s mind to become known to the System. At least, not yet.
So Odin had bent his powerful mind toward breaking Loki’s mental barriers. To scouring his mind for secrets and memories of misdeeds. Loki fought, of course. He fought with the tools he knew best, deception and misdirection. But his tricks were no match for the sheer titanic power of Odin’s intellect and will. The eldest and most powerful of their race, the Allfather as he was known in Earth’s legends, Odin pushed and pushed, giving Loki no rest, no chance to recover his dwindling strength. He mercilessly pulled what he wanted directly from Loki’s consciousness. Then he pulled more.
There was no question as to Loki’s guilt, now. Odin saw the memories of how Loki had conspired to trigger the early Induction of UCP382, and had purposely done so at a time in human development that would be sure to see them labeled as a contaminant. And while that knowledge saddened Odin, much worse was the realization that he hadn’t done it for power, or wealth.
He’d caused the deaths of billions of humans just to see if he could get away with it.
Odin revealed a nearly endless litany of crimes and immoral acts Loki committed himself, or conspired with others to carry out. He’d clearly gone insane eons ago, a common enough ailment among those who lived nearly endless lifespans. Few of his people, possibly not even Odin himself, faced the reality of such longev
ity and remained completely sane. At some point one ran out of the new experiences that kept life interesting. Routine became both nemesis and comforting friend, adventure a thing of the past. Hope faded into acceptance, then ambiguity and apathy.
For four days neither of them had moved from that small room, and Baldur had waited impatiently outside. His father was taking a significant risk in there. He was striding a fine line, uncovering evidence of Loki’s misdeeds while simultaneously keeping that evidence hidden from the nearly all-seeing System.
They had made a bargain, sealed by the System, to allow Allistor to end Loki’s life. Should Odin’s control ebb for even a moment, allowing the System access to the information he was extracting, Loki would be punished on the spot. Said punishment would result in Loki’s mortal death, and prevent Baldur and Odin from honoring their own agreement. There were technicalities they could exploit to avoid punishment themselves, but neither being wanted to have to explore those. Negotiating with the System was possible, but rarely beneficial in the end.
Even worse, the information in Loki’s mind implicated others. So many others. Hel was not the only member of their race to have conspired with Loki. His memories could take down whole factions, even empires. The degree of chaos their exposure would seed throughout the Collective might cripple it for millennia. And while those in power who had gotten there via unsavory means deserved their fate, their destruction would potentially impact trillions of more innocent lives.
But this… this one crime, the sheer psychopathic indifference to the genocide, the deaths of billions of members of an entire race that Odin himself favored… the magnitude and senselessness combined to wound Odin’s soul.
Loki still fought, grimly holding on to a meager few vestiges of the skeletons in his closet. One in particular he buried deepest of all, resolved to perish before allowing it to be exposed. Not out of fear, no. He embraced the fact that this final secret would be exposed in the end. But it would be revealed at a time of his own choosing.
He retreated into the deepest recesses of his own consciousness, exhausted from his seemingly endless losing battle with Odin. He left most of his mind, his precious secrets, to be scoured and consumed by his foe. While Odin was distracted, he prepared his final stand, building up the mightiest and most subtle barriers he could conjure.
Odin, for his part, had lost heart. His perusing of Loki’s misdeeds had become peremptory, mechanical, his mind automatically recording, sorting, and filing away the evidence as it came to him. Loki had ceased to resist except in a token manner, and Odin just wanted to end this whole distasteful process.
Finally, Odin’s tentacles fell away from where they’d burrowed directly into Loki’s brain. A deep sigh sent the mists swirling about the room, the movement projecting dejection and sorrow.
Loki slumped to the ground, unconscious as Odin stepped through the force field on his way out of the room. Not even looking at his favored son, Odin walked slowly past him.
“Father?” Baldur set a single tentacle on his father’s shoulder.
Odin paused, facing away from Baldur, eyes closed. “I wish none of this had been necessary my son. I truly do. Had I the power to reverse time and correct the path… but no. There is no value in contemplating the impossible.” He turned to face Baldur. “Do not ask me what I have learned, my son. You would not thank me for sharing the knowledge. You would instead curse me, and rightfully so. Let us honor our agreement with the human boy, and await the fallout that follows. I will… take certain steps in the time remaining to us to mitigate what I can. In fact, come with me. I shall require your assistance in preventing some of the more devastating consequences.” Odin shuffled down the corridor without explaining further.
Baldur took another long look at Loki’s still form on the floor of the detention cell, then turned to follow his father. Time was growing short, and it seemed they had much to do.
*****
Master Daigath tagged along with Allistor and his entourage as they approached the gelatinous settlement. The elf hadn’t volunteered his knowledge of the creatures, leaving Allistor to discover what he could for himself. He was not there to hold the boy’s hand through every small challenge, nor to answer every question. Growth came from exploration and struggle, from overcoming adversity and learning from it. Instead he sat back and watched, curious as to how Allistor would approach this particular problem.
“Alright, here we go. I kind of like your feeding idea. Bribing someone with food is hardly ever considered a hostile act, in my experience. But let’s not just throw meat at them and hope for the best.” Allistor spoke to the group as they stood about fifty yards from the opening to the gelatinous beings’ domain.
“You want to send another peasant to deliver meat?” Fayed asked.
Allistor took a deep breath, mentally counting to three before turning on the man. “I’m only going to tell you this once. There are no peasants here. There is no more caste system. No one is more or less entitled than any other person. This is a community of equals, where one’s value is derived from one’s contribution to the community. You earn rank, trust, and privileges based on your actions, not your family name, or bloodline. Is that clear?” He looked at each of the locals and waited for them to nod their understanding.
“Good. Now, to prove that point, I will be the one to deliver the tasty treats to the wobbly dudes in the caves.” He motioned for the rest of them to hold their positions, gave Helen a quick wink, and strode forward.
Behind him he heard Fayed mumble something, then Helen snort. “He does stuff like this. It’s annoying, but kind of endearing, too. You get used to it.”
Smiling to himself, he continued forward. He wasn’t truly concerned about this encounter. The recently arrived creatures were probably too low level to kill him. Though from the sounds of the acid attacks described by Agni, the pain he might be in for was going to suck. His smile faded as he thought about how much Amanda would enjoy studying his burned flesh and how quickly it healed, or didn’t.
He had no idea what he might accomplish here. No clue as to whether these creatures could communicate. He’d seen what he thought of as a slime creature in Harmon’s store once, so clearly it could interact in some functional way. But Allistor had no idea if these ahead of him were even the same species as that one.
As he drew closer to the opening, three of the… he was just going to go ahead and call them slimes in his head… approached and held position right at the edge. Allistor quickly withdrew three large steaks and held them in his hands with his arms wide and slightly forward.
“Uhm… hello there. I am Allistor, newly appointed Emperor of Earth. That’s this planet, by the way. I’ve come to welcome you, and offer gifts of friendship.” He waited several seconds for a response, but the three entities simply remained where they were, unmoving except for the occasional quiver of their bodies. All three of them were in a roughly cubic form with soft and slightly rounded edges.
Stepping forward, Allistor kept the steaks in front of him. When he was within reach, he extended the hand holding a single steak slowly toward the slime on his left, speaking softly the entire time. “Just going to reach out here, nice and easy. This is not an attack, just me offering you a tasty gift. I’ll just hold it right… here…” He stopped when the steak was just a couple inches from touching the slime’s nearest surface. “Go ahead, this one’s for you. I have one for each of your friends, as well.” He raised his other hand to show off the remaining two steaks. “Plenty more where these came from.”
He might have peed himself a little when a sort of suction cup shape shot out from the surface of the slime and attached itself to the steak. There was a gentle tug, and Allistor quickly let go. “Ya scared me there, buddy. That’s okay. Enjoy the snack. Here we go, other buddies.” He took a steak in each hand and slowly extended them toward the other two slimes. Both accepted them, but Allistor was glad to see that the tiny suction cup appendages emerged more slowly. As if
they’d understood his surprise, or his comments.”
Allistor watched with interest as all three drew the meat into their bodies. Almost immediately the protein began to discolor at the edges, being broken down by their digestive acid. After a few moments, the first one he’d fed moved forward slightly, then stopped and quivered from side to side.
“Is that… you want more?” Allistor asked, grabbing three more steaks. He held one out to the slime he was designating as Alpha, and this time the suction thingy was extended slowly and carefully. It gently accepted the offering, then moved its whole body back to its original position.
“Awesome!” Allistor smiled at all three of them, quickly feeding the other two. He turned back to his people while they ingested the steaks, giving a silent thumbs-up to let them know he was okay.
When he turned around, Alpha began quivering again. A moment later an appendage in the rough shape of an open hand extended out toward Allistor. On it sat a surprisingly clean wristwatch. It was just the watch itself, the leather band it had been attached to having been digested. Allistor reached out tentatively, then halted with his hand a few inches from the watch. “You… want to give this to me? You want to trade?”
The hand extended further until Allistor’s fingers touched the watch. He very carefully lifted it with two fingers, doing his best not to touch the slime’s flesh and get burned. “Thank you.” He smiled at Alpha.
The other two, whom he was now calling Bravo and Charlie, each extended a hand as well, one holding a fancy looking fountain pen, the other a gold men’s wedding ring. Allistor accepted them both with polite thanks and careful fingers. As soon as he’d taken them, all three of the creatures flashed a shade of blue throughout their bodies and quivered in what Allistor took to be excitement. A moment later they retreated into the darkness.
Shadow Sun Unification: Shadow Sun Book Five Page 31