Sunrise Destiny

by Mark Terence Chapman

  The emotion I sensed from him this time went well beyond amusement, all the way to hilarity.

  “I can guarantee that will not be a problem.”

  “Really. How can you be so sure? Did you work this out in advance? And why is it so damn funny?” His continuing amusement was quickly getting annoying.

  “My apologies, Sunrise. I do not mean to be rude. I should have introduced myself.” He paused for a beat. “I am Korr.”

  I was speechless. This was Korr the dictator? Murderer of millions? Destroyer of nations? I wasn’t sure what I expected Korr to be like—a crazed madman exhorting the masses to kill the infidels? Instead, he was lucid, personable, soft-spoken, perhaps even—under other circumstances—likeable. It could be that he was simply a convincing liar, or honestly believed his own B.S. Yet, as a cop I’d learned to read people. Korr didn’t strike me as evil or bloodthirsty or a lunatic.

  Still, I suspected that even Hitler and Stalin could be charming when they wanted to be. Sociopaths can act and sound like anyone else most of the time and lead everyday lives. How often has a serial killer been arrested, only to have his neighbors say, ‘He was such a quiet man. He never gave us any trouble.’?

  Someone was lying to me. Was it Korr or Karsh, and how could I tell the difference?

  Chapter Twenty

  Korr and I talked for another twenty minutes while I ate. There was no heavy interrogation, no intimidation, just general questions about Earth: population, sea life, weather—nothing he couldn’t have gotten from the Azarti who had been there chasing Karsh and crew aboard Galla.

  In return, he answered my questions about Lasharr. I learned that there were more than three billion Azarti on Lasharr, and tens of millions more on the other colony worlds. Although they had ships capable of traveling across the galaxy, in many respects their technology was inferior to ours. They had no equivalent of plastics, for example, or heavy equipment. As I’d suspected, most of their “technology” took the form of animal husbandry—breeding plants and animals to develop the traits needed to fulfill roles as transportation, housing, construction equipment, and so on.

  Some of the work sounded like it was done at the genetic level, but I wasn’t clear on how they managed that without equipment like electron microscopes. I got the impression it was done through some sort of psychic ability. Korr didn’t elaborate, and it didn’t seem important enough to pursue further. Still, for such “primitive” techniques, they managed to create some amazing technology, able to travel among the stars and build energy weapons—things we on Earth had only dreamt of.

  Eventually, Korr had to return to his duties.

  “I have enjoyed our talk. We will speak more tomorrow, during our tour of the city.”

  I found that despite the presence of guards to remind me of my captivity, and despite knowing that my friends were likewise prisoners and perhaps soon to be executed, I had enjoyed myself as well.

  “Can I see Lola now?”

  “Certainly. Bartu, please take our guest to his quarters. Lola will be waiting for you there, Sunrise.”

  Guest? Quarters? Not ‘prisoner’ and ‘cell’? That sounded encouraging. The guard Korr had addressed as Bartu walked toward the tube. I followed. The chamber quickly began to fill with water again, so I donned my threl.

  I turned back toward Korr and said, “Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Good night, Sunrise.”

  “Good night, Korr.”

  When the water level reached the height of the tube, I followed Bartu out of the chamber and into the passageway outside. Would I find Shari waiting for me? Or was this a mind game designed to break my spirit: build up my hopes only to dash them. Lather, rinse, repeat.

  It took only a minute to reach the chamber designated as my (our?) quarters. I climbed through, holding my breath, hoping that Shari would be waiting for me on the other side.

  “Don! Oh, thank God! They told me… But I didn’t believe….”

  She was all over me, hugging me and covering my threl with kisses. The interior of the cell was filled with air, so I removed my threl as soon as Shari let me.

  “Are you all right, honey?”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “After they took you, I was so scared. I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “Yeah, same here.”

  “They came for me a few minutes after you left. I was expecting an hour or so to go by before they came back. I was afraid that meant they’d just taken you out and…and….”

  “Executed me?”

  She nodded, eyes moist, holding me tighter.

  “Fortunately not. I was just fed and questioned. Nothing serious. Oh, and I met Korr.”

  Shari’s eyes went wide at the mention of his name. A teardrop broke free from her lower eyelid and rolled down her right cheek. “Really? What was he like?”

  “Surprisingly normal. No ranting, no raving, no threats. We had a nice chat.”

  “A chat? Really?”

  “Really. He said he’d take us on a tour of the city tomorrow.”

  “Whoa. I wouldn’t have expected that. I was expecting…I don’t know, whips and chains, or something.”

  “No kidding. I almost had to pick my jaw up from the floor when he said that. So what happened after they came for you?”

  She shrugged. “Not too different from what you went through. Food, water, some idle chitchat with the interrogator. Just casual stuff. I got the impression she was killing time, rather than interrogating me.”

  “Yeah, that’s the way I felt with Korr.”

  “This is so bizarre. Are these people really as bad as Karsh has been telling us?”

  “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.”

  * * * *

  The rest of the evening passed uneventfully—even boringly. We were fed, but otherwise left alone. That gave us plenty of time to talk, but I can’t say we came to any startling revelations. Korr didn’t seem to be the monster we’d expected to find. It could all have been an elaborate ruse designed to win our sympathy; but we couldn’t figure out why he’d care to do that. Korr had cast doubts on Karsh’s honesty, but neither of us was willing to believe that Karsh was some evil schemer who was merely using us for his own nefarious purposes. He came all the way back to Earth to rescue us, didn’t he? And that was long before I even had the sledgehammer he hoped to use against Korr.

  In the end, we fell asleep just as puzzled as we were when I returned from Korr’s chat.

  We awoke to find breakfast waiting for us by the entrance tube. I immediately noticed that the tube wasn’t sealed, as it had been when we were held in the group cell.

  We ate quickly and donned our threls. I poked my head through the tube to find a guard—Bartu—hovering outside. But only one guard. Did this indicate an increased level of trust on Korr’s part, or was it a ploy to make us think so?

  I suppose Bartu must have called Korr as soon as my head began to show, because he arrived before Shari’s feet emerged.

  “Ah. Excellent!” Korr projected. Are you both ready for our tour?”

  “Absolutely,” I replied. “We’re looking forward to seeing more of your fair city.”

  “Good, good. It is a pleasure to meet you at last, Lola.”

  “Same here.”

  “This way, please.”

  He led the way down a wide corridor. I saw that there were no open tubes or passageways off the main one. Was that normal, or was everything closed off in case we tried to make a run for it? After all, there was only the one guard following us. That gave me pause. What was to stop me from throttling the leader of the Azarti Brotherhood? Korr was much smaller than me, and likely weaker. I could probably reach him before the guard following Shari could shoot me. Of course, that meant Shari would be in his line of fire. Was Korr counting on that, or did he have snipers hidden in the walls, ready to fire on his mental command? Perhaps he was counting on this very doubt to keep me from acting.

  After a couple of min
utes, we reached a tube near the end of the passageway. Korr again led the way. On the other side, I found that we were inside a ship. It was much smaller than Galla, and transparent across most of the top and sides. I couldn’t help but think of an underwater equivalent of the convertible automobiles once used by kings and presidents when traveling a parade route.

  Bartu didn’t follow us, but he wasn’t necessary. There were two other guards already aboard ship.

  “I must apologize for the security detail,” Korr said. “It is not a reflection on you, but on the present state of political affairs. I must travel with security whenever I leave Grambala.”

  “Of course.” If he was indeed a monster, of course people wanted him dead.

  Our ship pulled away from the wall and traveled down a long, wide tunnel, preceded by one ship and followed by another. We exited the tunnel outside the city and then followed a winding underwater crevasse before emerging over a grassy plain. The ships circled back toward the city and stayed beyond the outskirts for a while.

  “More security precautions, I am afraid. I must enter the city from a different quarter each time to keep my route unpredictable. I use several different exits and never return the same way. Your friends, it seems, like to shoot at me.”

  I smiled, as much at his wry humor as at the truth of the statement.

  Shari had been silent until now. “I’m amazed by the whole concept of a city under the sea. Thousands of people who rarely if ever emerge into the air.”

  Korr exuded mirth. “That is exactly what my people said when they saw your Earth cities on dry land. What a concept!”

  I chuckled at the thought. People are people wherever you go.

  Shari was enthralled. “The lights on the buildings are beautiful. It almost seems like there’s a pattern to them.”

  “That is astute of you. Yes, indeed. The lights are laid out in the outline of a type of sea plant called a dryda. It is easier to see when directly overhead. At night, with a calm sea, the lights are even visible from the air above. We change the colors and patterns periodically. Cityscaping is an art form among the Azarti. Several individuals are employed to do nothing but design and lay out the patterns for the cityscapes and other art projects.”

  “I don’t mean to be a stick-in-the-mud,” I countered, “but from what I’ve heard of your world, there are large areas that are still recovering from the world war you fought. Wouldn’t the funds used on the cityscapes be better spent restoring those damaged areas?”

  Korr’s good humor faltered for a moment. “You are visitors to our world, so I will excuse your ignorance. The funds used for the cityscapes are but a pittance. Ballan is the capital city of Lasharr. It would not do for it to look dilapidated when other races visit our planet. In the interest of trade with other worlds, we must project an air of prosperity despite our internal problems. Besides, adding beauty to the city helps raise the people’s spirits.”

  “Of course. I understand.” I understood that decorating your city while people in other cities starved or lacked adequate housing was at best callous and at worst criminal.

  Perhaps he sensed some of my disapproval.

  “Do not be too quick to judge us, Sunrise. The people of Lasharr are recovering from a decades-long cultural, social, economic, and military upheaval of worldwide proportions. There are inequities, corrupt local leaders, and injustices that still need to be redressed. However, we are working on doing so.”

  “Fair enough.” He was right. It would be easy to take a quick look at one small area of Earth and jump to conclusions about the state of the whole planet.

  Korr was the perfect tour guide, pointing out soaring towers, taking us through huge underground caverns lighted by luminescent algae, even showing us the poorer parts of town—to point out the new construction under way.

  For more than two hours, he regaled us with tales of the founding of the city, of an ancient civil war, the foibles of some pioneering architects, and natural disasters that wiped out entire neighborhoods. He was a most charming host. It was hard to think of him as the “Butcher of Burgor,” as Karsh once called him.

  “Korr,” I interrupted at one point, “why are you being so nice to us? I realize that from your point of view we assisted traitors in trying to overthrow the government. We could disappear and no one would know the difference.”

  I knew that I was treading on thin ice here. I didn’t want to give him any rash ideas. Still, it was unlikely these thoughts hadn’t already been discussed with his advisors.

  “So what’s the point of showing us all this? Surely as the leader of your world, you have pressing matters to attend to. Why take so much time out of your day to play tour guide?”

  “You are correct, my friend. I do have many pressing matters that I have put off to be here with you. However I do not see our time together as wasteful. I am willing to believe that you were involved in the insurrection out of ignorance, deceived by Karsh for his own purposes. You are the first humans to visit Lasharr. I am hopeful that our worlds can engage in peaceful trade relations. After you have seen the beauty of Lasharr, and what we have to offer your people in terms of bioengineering skills, you can return to Earth and introduce us to your government so we can begin trade discussions.”

  “Return to Earth? So you’re planning to let us go?”

  “Of course! I apologize for not being clear on that point sooner. After you have seen more of Lasharr over the next few weeks, I would be honored to escort you to Earth myself.”

  Korr continued to surprise me. It certainly was a relief to learn that Shari and I weren’t in imminent danger of being executed.

  “Thank you. That’s good to hear.”

  Shari jumped in. “But what about Karsh and his people? What are you planning to do with them?”

  “Lola,” Korr snapped, “I have already told you both that the traitors will receive a trial by a jury of their peers. Speak of them no more, before I begin to suspect you are actually willing participants in the insurrection, rather than innocent dupes.”

  “My apologies, Korr.” I gave Shari a stern look to forestall a retort. “We won’t mention them again.”

  Was this the first chink in Korr’s nice-guy façade, or a reasonable reaction by someone who felt he was bending over backwards to be gracious to an enemy?

  “Very well.” The tension in the ship dissipated. “Let us return to Grambala. I do have other duties that await me.”

  I decided to see if there was anything we could do to help Karsh and the others. Whether they were the good guys or the bad guys depended on one’s point of view. What didn’t change, though, was that they were our friends and they faced possible death sentences at trial.

  * * * *

  As soon as we were back in our quarters, I smacked my forehead with the heel of my hand.

  “What’s the matter,” Shari asked. Her emerald eyes were narrowed with concern. “Are you all right?”

  “When Korr and I were talking yesterday, he mentioned that my sledgehammer was nullified by certain Azarti with a sort of dampening field capability. It just hit me that he said ‘in this wing of Grambala.’ In this wing. That implies that once we leave this wing, my sledgehammer could be operative again. We were alone with Korr in that ship for hours, well outside Grambala. There were plenty of opportunities to knock him out and complete the mission for Karsh. We could have won the rebellion right then and there, and I didn’t even think of it!”

  Shari was silent for a moment. “Are you sure? Do you know for certain that he didn’t have someone aboard the ship with that dampening ability? Maybe that was a test to see if you’d attack him. Maybe we’d be dead right now if you had tried to knock him out. And, for that matter, are you certain you even want to do that? Have you decided once and for all that Korr is indeed the evil dictator that Karsh has painted him to be?”

  I opened my mouth to respond, and then realized that I had no answers to her questions. I sighed. “You’re right. I prob
ably wouldn’t have done it anyway, even if I could. It’s probably best that I didn’t try. But that leaves us at square one. Who do we trust, and what do we do next?”

  It would have been nice to have some answers for once, instead of still more questions.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Over the next week, Shari and I got the grand tour of the planet, from major cities still rebuilding from the civil war to a small outpost in the middle of nowhere investigating deep sea volcanoes; from undersea farms to operations that extracted elements and chemicals from seawater. We saw the good, the bad, and the prosaic. If Korr was trying to hide any atrocities or rioting in the streets, he was doing a damn good job of it.

  Of course, with an entire planet to choose from, he had plenty of “innocent” sites to show us without having to come anywhere near a death camp or chain gang. The whole time we toured, Korr talked excitedly of the opportunities for trade with Earth, the fostering of friendship between our two peoples, the sharing of technologies for the mutual benefit of both planets, and so on. It was impossible not to be infected by his enthusiasm. I knew he was trying to win our trust, but so far I had no reason to doubt him—except, of course, for the lingering suspicions left over from my time with Karsh.

  Still, Shari and I continued to reside in the same quarters, with a guard by the tube. When we asked Korr why we still needed to be guarded, he replied, “You must understand my position. Many on the council think you two should be put to death for aiding and abetting the traitors. As aliens, you are not afforded the same legal protections as Azarti citizens. The council thinks I am being too lenient with you both as it is. The guard is merely there as a concession to them. Despite what Karsh has told you, I am not a dictator. I govern at the pleasure of the Council of Brothers. I can be removed by a majority vote.”

  It all sounded reasonable. Of course, it also made a convenient excuse for keeping us on a leash.

  After several days, Shari began to worry about Karsh, Keldor, and the others. The longer we went without word of their fate, the more agitated she became. I have to confess, I was so enthralled by the experience of exploring an alien world that I’d hardly given them a thought until Shari once again raised the question. I tried to reassure her with reminders that Korr said they were unharmed.