Sliding her ring back on her finger, she is surprised to find that it is oddly warm. ‘Whoa’! It then begins to glow, soon so bright that it illuminates everything around them. The light revealing a large chamber decorated with icicles; its ice hides numerous and intricate rock drawings, mostly those of men, women and children, staring upwards. Seemingly, to a ledge that hangs over them.
‘This is no random place’, VanWest cryptically states in a low voice. He feels drawn to the ledge, he must go there. The ring triggers the icicles to begin melting, so much so that they are forced to cover their heads as they fall all around. VanWest is now able to wriggle free and embraces Iris with a big hug. The warmth helping his frozen body to sit up.
Amazed by what he sees, LeSouris is also drawn to the ledge, and enthusiastically urges them to go up there, ‘My friends, praise be! We climb up to this ledge, yes’?
VanWest somehow knows this to be a holy place, the drawings depictions of Martians, his origins. He surmises that it cannot be a coincidence that they have all arrived here, and with Sista Cee in a gooey puddle this was unlikely her intended destination.
‘Yes, this is no random place. We come here for a reason, we must go up there’.
‘What do you mean this is no random place’? Iris asks, only for VanWest to shake his head, unable to answer at this moment.
LeSouris points to well-trodden stepping stones, shoeprints of varying sizes clearly visible, that go to this ledge. Spaced far apart, each will require a perfectly balanced leap to get from one to another. For VanWest’s long legs, this is a rather straightforward climb, and he proceeds at pace. LeSouris and Iris follow, trying to match his athleticism, only to find each jump harder than the one before.
As VanWest reaches and hops onto the ledge, his heavy foot causes a large sheet of ice to fall down in front. Revealing a most amazing sight, a wall full of precious and colourful stones, on closer inspection, a splendid mural. VanWest is instantly transfixed, his mind euphoric. The ornate square stones of the mural have been arranged in the form of a garden, with colourful pink and yellow flowers interspersed between green shrubs that encircle a large bluish-greenish lake or pond. It must be a depiction of Mars centuries ago. Dr VonHelmann had told him that this world was once green and rich, Utopian like.
An inscription illuminates, in the bottom corner, Bewakers van de Groene Utopie, translating to Guardians of a Green Utopia. Dutch the old language of its first colonisers, the language remained in use for official texts and ceremonies, with English being its main spoken language. Indeed, the name of the Martian’s last President, his namesake and clone source Dederic Van der Westhuizen, is of Dutch heritage too.
LeSouris follows VanWest and hops onto the ledge, not quite as agile and in shape, it proves more difficult to reach. After taking a moment to balance, his eyes too becomes transfixed as he looks over, marvelled by the mural’s exquisiteness and mystery, ‘It cannot be! I heard tales but my word… Mars looked like this mural? Green with vegetation. Praise Utopia’!
VanWest looks curiously at him, ‘Tales’? He wants to know more.
LeSouris pats him on the back, his knowledge coming from Dr VonHelmann as well, ‘Yes, my friend. Doctor tell me people lived on Mars. The place not simply sand and dirt’. Pointing at the inscription, ‘This was Groene Utopie’!
‘Ah, he told me the same’, VanWest replies. He actually knows more, that Dr VonHelmann came to Mars as an interplanetary official, diplomat of the then Grand Council, before its destruction and genocide of its Martian inhabitants.
Iris arrives last, VanWest stretches over to help her from the last stepping stone and onto the ledge. Just like with VanWest and LeSouris, she too becomes instantly transfixed. But, with a keen eye for detail, immediately notices a couple of irregularities. There are two missing pieces, a circular one from what appears to be a large flower or sun, yellowish-orange in colour, and another from the bluish-green lake. Her ring glows brighter as she brings her hand closer, in fact so bright they all squint. The chamber’s new warmth originating from this mural, its energy has been triggered.
Yet more astonishing, her ring’s emerald is similar in size and colour as the lake’s missing piece. This cannot be yet another coincidence!
‘Your ring, where did you get it. From your father, right’? VanWest probes.
‘Yes… Papa gave it to me’, Iris answers.
‘And how did he get it’? VanWest says in an accusative tone.
‘I do not know. He always said it came from a faraway place, seeing this I guess it came from Mars’.
‘Faraway? How far exactly’?
Iris doesn’t like VanWest’s tone, replying sarcastically, ‘Maybe he stole it’!
She takes off her ring and hands it to him, ‘Have it! Figure out what it means’!
LeSouris suggests, ‘My friends, calm down… Try to bring it closer’.
Taking hold of the ring, he moves the emerald closer to the missing piece in the bluish-green lake to see if it causes any additional reaction. Pulling at him, the emerald turns not only brighter but also much bluer. Creak! He steps back as a sharp noise grows.
‘Duck’! A large ice stalagmite breaks off and drops onto the ledge. The chamber shakes, the rocks below shifting and causing even more icicles to fall. Warming up, the melting accelerates, and the dry ice blocks sublimate away.
Swoosh! The water spirals as it drains from the chamber, creating a most stupendous and surreal scene. The emerald a key, which brought close to the mural has triggered a mechanism. They huddle together, not knowing what comes next as the icy water drains completely from the chamber.
La-la-la!
‘Do you hear the sweet song’? VanWest asks. But LeSouris and Iris shake their heads, they cannot.
La-la-la!
He turns back to look at the mural and freezes! There’s a little girl that glowers at him, her eyes dark green, it is the same girl from his earlier vision, that of Van der Westhuizen’s memory. In her ghostly hands, there’s the other missing piece from the mural, which he recognises to be the same orange-yellowish stone her father gave her.
The girl’s eyes narrow as she yells in a high-pitched voice, ‘Papie, you killed us’!
A startled VanWest stumbles backwards, fortunate to bump into LeSouris, who saves him from falling off the ledge.
‘Careful, my friend. You ok? You look like you seen a ghost’? LeSouris looks at VanWest with concern, as does Iris who comes over and puts her hand on his shoulder. As they do, the girl disappears, fading into the mural.
‘You didn’t see her’? VanWest asks in a shrill voice.
‘See who’? LeSouris replies. Already alarmed greatly by the draining of the water, ‘My word, I think this place is too much, no’?
With the ice gone, they find more writing etched into the rock beside the mural, though this one is much rougher and coarser than the rest. ‘Ah’! As they step forward to read, they make another startling discovery. This one most grim, that of a cadaver wedged in a divot between the mural and ledge.
Noting the same white jumpsuit that he saw President Van der Westhuizen wear in his vision, VanWest immediately identifies it to be ‘Martian’! Lying beside is a metal stencil. He had etched into the rock, a hard to decipher message in English:
Our Land. Our People - No More.
Our Stone. Our Energy. Our Gift - Betrayed.
All Gone. No Survivors. No Women. No Children.
The Evil Desires. All Our Resources.
Our Niobium. Our Polar Ice. To Cool their Nuclear Ships.
Our Utopie Gone - We Are No More.
Despite the tragic writing, LeSouris cannot help but feel excited, this mural a further confirmation than Groene Utopie existed. It is, or was, here on this planet, ‘My friends, praise be! Maybe the answer lies here to restore Utopia, this mural a key. Utopia not lost after all, but here on Mars all along’!
With the Utopian mission to change the past having failed, LeSouris is hopeful that Utopia can still be found.
VanWest is also intrigued, particularly by Our Stone, he wonders if this is the same as the girl’s. Trying to piece together all he has seen, the church and this seems all to be related to Our Energy. LeSouris could be right: this stone is a key. Recalling Dr VonHelmann’s interface, he wonders if the stone was how the Council’s forces got through Mars’s impenetrable shield.
VanWest turns to Iris to get her opinion, only to find her in tears. Unlike LeSouris, her first thought is not of rejoicing at the possibility of finding Utopia. Rather a sense of deep sadness for the Martians, their population wiped out, made extinct. VanWest puts a comforting arm around her and gives a gentle kiss on her forehead.
Not pleased with LeSouris, she replies pointedly, ‘Perhaps Utopia is here… Let us not forget ourselves, let us take a moment to pay our respects. These poor souls’.
‘Poor souls, indeed’, VanWest joins in a moment of silence.
‘Yes, of course. Meant no disrespect’, LeSouris agrees.
The moment passing, Iris thoughts turn to the motive behind their deaths, ‘Niobium, a rare-earth metal used in Superconductors. The evil Council needed this to power their ships. Their deaths… pure greed’.
VanWest confirms, ‘My sweet, yes, your father showed me this, this the cause of the genocide’. As the Space Army and Dr King now prepare to repeat history on Earth’s citizens.
La-la-la!
As he finishes speaking, he notices that the sweet sound has returned. VanWest turns slowly to find the little girl gazing up at him once more, this time she no longer appears angry, instead she is playful and skips along the ledge. LeSouris and Iris still do not see or hear her; instead; they discuss how to exit from this chamber.
VanWest walks up to the girl and crouches down beside her, whispering in her ear, not quite sure who to address her as, ‘I’m sorry. I, he, didn’t mean to kill you. He couldn’t foresee this evil. Forgive me, us. I need your help to make amends’.
Recognising him as her father, she smiles back and puts her ghostly hand over his, sending a tingling, warm feeling through him that jolts his mind forward in time. He sees a lab and the swarmy and bearded face of Dr Minus Schuurman. The snake-like Interrogator and the near cyclops-eyed Commissioner Ming are there too, laughing at a badly tortured and beaten Gs, his colourless skin burnt a bright red. But something quite bizarre comes into view; VanWest sees someone that looks remarkably like himself, half-naked he carries a tray of drinks and wears a medical bib.
VanWest wants to call out, but the vision changes, the scene becoming even more surreal and horrifying. Dr Schuurman stands bare-chested with an odd-looking dagger, wearing a blue and green featured headdress. Under him is a naked man tied to a flat rock, a round stone sermon. Unable to see more, VanWest moves his hand away, breaking the vision.
The little girl’s body begins to fade, walking to the edge of the ledge, she whispers, ‘The church’, before jumping. VanWest tries to catch her, but her ghostly body passes through his hands as she disappears.
Noticing his strange behaviour, Iris grabs his arm and shakes him, very worried she asks him in succession, ‘What are you doing? Why are you talking to yourself? Are you feeling ok’?
VanWest recomposes himself and gives Iris a reassuring hug, doing his best to look ok. The whole vision quite unnerving, he is most of all shocked to see himself serving drinks to these evil men. Horrified to think this could be showing his fate. Colonel Cornelius’s last words replaying in his mind, warning him to ‘beware yourself’. Still, he feels a presence compelling him on - that he must go and confront whatever is fated.
VanWest notices that his tech works again, he wastes no time in accessing the Colonel’s red chip to search for his location as well as the hidden base. Whilst the chamber they stand-in is not marked, he is relieved to find that they have arrived in the Alba Mons mountain range, his Moggle X map showing a symbol of a small peak on top. But as he zooms in, a voice calls in his mind, ‘VanWest’! It is not quite his own.
Iris takes his hand and points to a possible exit, the spot where the icy water drained, ‘My love, you see it’.
‘Yes, my sweet. My Moggle X places us close to Alba Mons’, VanWest reveals.
LeSouris takes this as another great sign, ‘Praise be’! He asks again more detail, ‘My friend, the plan’?
Again, VanWest is unable to articulate it, ‘Like you say, we must trust’!
Seeing VanWest’s weariness, Iris recommends they rest up before trekking further, ‘Let’s get some sleep. We need to gather our strength for what lies ahead, a couple of hours won’t hurt’.
LeSouris agrees, replying with a smile, ‘Our mission, our destiny can wait a little longer’!
Having carried with her some energy pills, she distributes one to each. The trio lies down together on the ledge. VanWest though is unable to sleep, his mind continues to race. The voice calling, he stares at where the water drained - wondering what comes next. What is fated?
Chapter 10 Universal Law
‘Warning Universal law in place, must comply’.
The situation in New Jersey is fraught. With the breaking of the PATH agreement made between the Universal Council and its four warlords: Method A, Method Bee, Rulez Haah, and Gangs Hater. Commissioner Ming now pushes deeper into Jerseyan territory, transporting on the top of the Transportation Center, close to Journal Square station, he comes to exert control here next. Accompanying him is Major Chromes, the prominent red team Space Soldier that nearly bested VanWest during the final stage of the Universal Games, critically wounding his squad member, Captain Barys, in the process.
Even though the Commissioner still seeks VanWest, his focus has switched to establishing ‘Universal law’ over New Jersey. The Universal Council commandments now fully apply:
1. To serve without question the Universal Council
2. To work for the progression of man and the Universal
3. To destroy all those who defy the Universal Council
No longer affording New Jersey the special privilege of anonymity. It makes for a ballsy move in troubled times, but Dr King commands a clampdown on all habited areas, and that means here too. The ‘peeps’, Jerseyans of Journal Square, arm themselves ready to react on Rulez Haah’s instruction. Unfortunately, she herself does not fully realise the threat despite warnings coming from Harrison and Newark, the ‘exit’ of New Jersey’s subway system. Having dismissed it as a problem exclusive to the Method cousins.
Her shocked looking guard, Bruva Lem, waits for Rulez Haah, the warlord of the east side of New Jersey, to give an answer on the Commissioner’s message, including his condition to immediately handover both cousins.
‘Commissioner says he will shoot us, must comply’!
The cousins look pensively at Rulez Haah, worrying that she too will allow the PATH agreement to be broken and side with the Universal Council, just as the warlord of Manhattan, Gangs Hater, has done so already. Another guard brings news that his fighters have amassed on the edge of her territory, ‘Gangs edging into east side’, outside Hoboken station and Exchange Place station.
‘WHAT’? A visibly angered and surprised Rulez Haah yells. She readies to leave the room immediately, instructing her guards to ‘get cousins ready’, to meet the Commissioner and talk reason, ‘Me go, strike deal’!
Knowing well the Commissioner’s guile, Bee tries to warn her, ‘Rulez, I go with. Commissioner is trickster, gonna try to play you, cheat you’.
‘Zip it’! Rulez Haah doesn’t want to hear him out; instead, she now instructs her guards to point their Electrozappers at each. Method Bee and Method A know how serious the situation is after their recent encounters with the Space Soldiers. They know too that she is too late to ‘strike deal’. For the Commissioner has already picked his puppet ruler, Gangs Hater, hence his move to the edge of her territory.
Undeterred by the Electrozappers, Method A steps behind her, ‘Commissioner offers Gangs Hater to be one and only warlord, you get me’?
Rulez
Haah turns sharply and glowers at her, ‘Nah, this is all because you helped that Enforcer, Captain VanWest. Why you meddle with land maggots? Been playing with the maggots for years, putting us all in danger. It’s payback time, aye’!
‘What you mean’? Method A barks back. But she knows there is an element of truth to this. Sooner or later, it was bound to catch up with her.
‘I know… about your smuggling. Your contacts easy to sway with my moolah’.
Method A replies strongly, ‘Silly dawg, you not get me. Gangs Hater make deal with Universal, now too late! They come to kill’!
Rulez Haah shakes her head, responding, ‘Don’t insult me. You not my family, you not my ally, why I gotta trust you’?
She is right. The Method cousins exchange a tense look, they know that they need a good answer, something to persuade her and save them all. If they can’t, then they will all soon be dead, and with it what remains of the PATH, New Jersey and New York fully under the control of the Universal Council, under their puppet warlord Gangs Hater. They know full well how Antarctica and its citizens live. Virtually enslaved, their lives one of servitude, where simple freedoms do not exist, such as walking the street free from the harassment of Quadrotors. The right to travel to other planets and have a different viewpoint, among many others.
For all of New Jersey’s weaknesses, they at least do not have dramatic inequalities. In New Jersey, warlords and normal ‘peeps’ don’t live so differently. Albeit Rulez Haah’s quarters are more opulent than most, this still pales in comparison to the Oligarchs, the Elites and their descendants. In this underground world, one can still make themselves a success, be it a cargo ship pilot, Papini farmer, casino boss or otherwise. Life is not so predefined.
Knowing her desire for him and his territory, a desperate Method Bee blurts out an audacious offer, ‘We, we wed’! The room falls silent as he clarifies his offer to Rulez Haah, ‘I become yours… Aye? Harrison part of your territory, we family’?
The Present Page 9