“Um, yeah, I guess so. I guess you could say we was... discarded, not really kicked out.”
“Hey, Fastidious, why don’t we stop and talk to these Peace-Keepers about our mission?” Loquacious chimed in.
“Yes, we should,” Systematicus agreed.
“Well, I imagine Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine can wait for a little while longer,” I added.
“Why waste our time on these rejects?” Surreptitious asked.
“A bro-ken Au-to-clon is an Au-to-clon none-the-less,” Winston said.
“Agreed.” I then turned my attention back to the two Peace-Keepers. “I’m not sure we have too many credits to spare at this time, but we would like to talk to you and the rest of your kind if you don’t mind. Could you lead us to your home?”
The one Autoclon doing the talking then motioned to its compatriot, and the two started moving back to the north along a small trail leading to their settlement. “This way,” the vocal Autoclon said. “My friend don’t hear or talk good, so I do both for us.” Well, I guess that’s good to know.
We followed this trail along the hillside for nearly 10 minutes before we entered their shanty complex. We saw a total of seven structures in the settlement, most of which were nothing more than lean-tos build into the side of the hill. Two of these structures were more expansive as their owners had excavated additional rock out of the hillside to provide more adequate shelter in case of bad wind storms.
As we arrived, the other “discarded” Peace-Keepers came out from their abodes. Including our two escorts, I counted an astounding total of 38 Peace-Keepers. Nearly all had some visible malady: missing arms or graspers, broken tracks, busted central casings, and more. They were certainly a sorry-looking bunch, but in their day, I’m sure they would have been terrifying as a whole.
The collection of Peace-Keepers gathered around us when we entered the center of the settlement. I must admit that I was a bit intimidated and frightened by these massive Autoclons pressing into us from all directions, and I could also see uneasiness amongst the rest of my crew. I decided to diffuse any tension by introducing ourselves to the occupants of this settlement.
“Good morning, fellow Autoclons! I am Fastidious, and these are my traveling companions: Loquacious, Systematicus, Resolute, Surreptitious, and Winston. I’m afraid we do not have a wealth of credits to give to you today, but what we do have, we’ll share with you abundantly, and that is a message of hope and possibility.”
I then proceeded to re-tell my story. In general, the Peace-Keepers were an attentive group, likely because so few other Autoclons paid them any attention. They were fascinated with everything related to the Programmer, including Winston. They also didn’t need much convincing for them to believe that the Facilitators and the Ruling Party would try to change our programming to force us into complete obedience. When it came time to talk about the programming update and their opportunity to receive the modified code, they eagerly agreed to receive the update. They craved for someone or something to give them hope in the future, and they couldn’t wait to accept this code from our Programmer.
After they all had finished the reboot process (which took considerably longer for this group when compared with other Autoclons), one of the Peace-Keepers asked: “What do we do now?”
“Well, you are free to do whatever you want to do. We can leave you some credits to get started, but ultimately, you’ll need to decide for yourselves how you want to live in the future. You may want to stick together and do something en masse, or perhaps a few of you could venture out on your own.”
“Not all of us can do a whole lot. What is we supposed to do?” another one asked.
“I... I’m not sure really.”
“I think I can answer that question,” Systematicus added. “I will stay with you here and help guide you in your decisions.”
The rest of us were stunned. Loquacious broke the silence: “Systematicus... are you sure you want to stay here? Don’t you want to come along with the rest of us?”
“I would only slow you down. I am not sure I am cut out for these sorts of adventures, especially after Mount Obsidian. Besides, by staying here with these Peace-Keepers, I can also help Fervidius become a skilled Farmer.”
“It seems like you’ve thought this decision through. I’m sure I speak for the rest of us in saying that we’ll miss you.” I replied.
After giving everyone a chance to say goodbye to Systematicus, I announced: “Well, I guess it’s time for us to be going now. I hope we’ll see you all again in the future.”
“Yes, me too,” Systematicus replied. “Oh… and one other thing: you can take my cart. I calculate that you will need it more than I will.”
“Are you sure? You were so excited to get a new cart.”
“Yes.” Systematicus brought the cart to Resolute. “Here, I think you can handle it.”
“Yeah, thanks!” Resolute replied.
“Here are some cred-its for you to get start-ed,” Winston added, opening up a small compartment in its main casing, revealing around 200 credits.
“Thank you.” Systematicus took the credits from Winston and secured them inside its casing.
“Goodbye, Systematicus.”
And with that, the five of us took the path back to the south to join up with the road and continue our journey to the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine.
Chapter 7 - The Lightning Storm and Finding the Memory Cave
7.0 The Queen and the Sorcerer
5:09, Day 26, Fourth Tetrad, 206 D.P.
We reached the main road well more than an hour after Lazuli-rise. Our group started down the road to the west toward the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine in silence. We were rather disheartened after Systematicus decided to stay with the Peace-Keeper castoffs. Systematicus was an odd companion, but I began to appreciate its presence as we spent more time together. It didn’t have much to say most of the time, but it would also go on and on when talking about farming, a clear passion for Systematicus. I supposed I shouldn’t have been too shocked that Systematicus left us, but I just didn’t understand Systematicus’s thought processes as well as I did the others in our group. Unfortunately, I would no longer have the opportunity to get to know Systematicus better.
Loquacious eventually broke the silence: “I know this may not seem accurate based on this morning’s events, but with Kapali leading us on, this leg of our journey may yet be productive.”
“How can you decipher that?” Surreptitious asked.
“Look above the horizon just to the south of the road.” I followed Loquacious’s advice, and I saw the blue face of Kapali, inching its way downward, now less than 10 minutes from setting.
“OK, I see Kapali. How is that an auspicious sign for our journey?” Surreptitious asked.
“First of all, the Scoundrel is nowhere to be seen. That, by itself, is good news as we begin our trip westward. Second, not only is our Sovereign in the skies, but she’s ahead of us, beckoning us westward. Explorers in the past would consider that to be a very favorable omen.”
“‘Sovereign’, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that one. What’s wrong with ‘Sluggard’?”
“Storytellers have always used the term ‘Sovereign’. It certainly makes for better stories than ‘Sluggard’,” Loquacious replied. “Fastidious, did I ever tell you the tale about how the Sovereign and the Scoundrel came to Zarikum?”
“No, I don’t think so. I assumed they were always in orbit around Zarikum,” I said.
“Well, I suppose they always have in real life, but that didn’t stop Sonorous the Bard from coming up with the following story about how they came here a long time ago:
“Once upon a time, there was a Woman who was Queen of a large territory.”
“What’s a ‘Queen’?” Resolute asked.
“A ‘Queen’ is a Female ruler in charge of governing a nation. The Male equivalent of a ‘Queen’ is called a ‘King”.”
“Oh, OK. Keep going please.”
<
br /> “This Queen was benevolent and loved her people. She protected them from attacks by outside forces and cared for her subjects during crippling famines. She also led them into a long period of economic prosperity. Consequently, her subjects adored their Queen.
“However, there was an evil and powerful sorcerer from a neighboring land who saw this prosperity and plotted to take over her country.”
“‘Evil sorcerer’? What’s a ‘sorcerer’?” Resolute inquired.
“A ‘sorcerer’ is a Man who practices magic. You know what ‘magic’ is, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The Queen discovered from her network of spies that this evil sorcerer had perfected a magic spell that would allow him to charm any Woman he chose and would cause her to fall madly in love with him. These spies deduced that this sorcerer was planning to meet the Queen, who was unmarried, and have her fall in love with the sorcerer and make him King of the nation.”
“What’s ‘unmarried’?” Resolute again asked.
“You obviously don’t know much about Humans, do you?” Surreptitious retorted.
“Yeah, well, I guess someone didn’t want us Drudgers to know too much information. Isn’t that right, Surreptitious?”
“Whoa, settle down everyone. I’m just trying to tell a story here. Resolute, you can still ask any questions you want. And to answer this specific question, Humans often couple up, one Man and one Woman, after they fall in love and choose to spend the rest of their lives together. In our story, the Queen hadn’t found anyone yet that she wanted to marry, so the sorcerer figured that he could charm the Queen with his magic spell and convince her to marry him, thus making him King over all of the land. The sorcerer would then use his newfound power as King to ruthlessly rule over the Queen’s subjects and abuse this power for his own personal and financial gain.
“The Queen loved her people, and after learning of this evil sorcerer’s plot, she determined to stop the sorcerer from carrying out his plan. She sent a dozen of her most trusted guards to scour the countryside and find this sorcerer. No one knew exactly what this sorcerer looked like, but her spies had learned that he had a grand red cape, so the Queen dispatched her guards to look for a Man in a red cape.
“Days went by. Days turned into weeks, but still the Queen had not heard anything back from her guards. Finally, four weeks later, two of her guards returned with bad news.
“‘Your Majesty, we have learned that the sorcerer has incapacitated at least five of the guards you’ve sent to capture him. We found all five deep in sleep in various locations throughout the countryside.’
“’How did this happen?’ the Queen asked.
“’We talked with a three commoners who witnessed an encounter between the sorcerer and one of the guards, and they told us that this sorcerer cast a sleeping spell. The guard couldn’t counteract this strong of a spell, so he was overcome with sleep. We’re afraid this sorcerer is too powerful for any one of us to capture by ourselves. And that’s not the worst of it: we’ve heard rumors that he’s entered the capital city!’
“The Queen was greatly distressed by this report. It was too dangerous now to send out guards to track down this sorcerer, so her thoughts turned to how she could protect herself. She mobilized a battalion of her army to stand guard both outside and inside her royal palace to protect her until she and her strategists could determine a way to capture (or kill) this sorcerer.
“Her advisors concluded that they could not take down this sorcerer with magic, as he was more powerful than any sorcerer or wizard loyal to the Queen. They determined that their best chance to subdue this evil sorcerer was to overwhelm him with a large number of soldiers. To do that, they first needed to find this sorcerer. Once they located him, they could quickly act and send in her troops to capture him. So the Queen briefed her network of spies of the situation and had them spread out throughout the capital city to find the sorcerer. They were instructed not to attempt to capture him but to report the location of this threat to the Queen immediately.
“This time, the Queen did not need to wait long before hearing back from her spies. Just two days later, one of her spies came back after spotting the sorcerer in a local tavern.”
“Sorry for interrupting again, but what is a ‘tavern’?” Resolute asked.
“I must admit, I don’t know what a ‘tavern’ is either,” Surreptitious added.
“Well, it’s a place where Humans get together and drink alcoholic beverages,” Loquacious replied. “For Humans, alcohol is a mild depressant that often allows its drinkers to relax if taken in moderation. However, taken in larger quantities, alcohol is known to impair mental judgment. Anyway, taverns were places Humans could go to drink in the company of friends or strangers. In this case, the sorcerer was drinking in this tavern, and unbeknownst to him, one of the Queen’s spies was there too. The spy recognized the sorcerer with his red cape and started a conversation with the sorcerer. The sorcerer had had a bit too much alcohol to drink that evening and opened up to the spy, sharing some particularly interesting information with him. The spy then informed the Queen of what he learned:
“‘The sorcerer confirmed that he was looking to infiltrate the palace and track you down so he could put you under his ‘charm spell’. He also mentioned that he was working on another spell that would allow him to know your location at all times. He said he could use this spell in case you decided to flee the palace. He did say that the spell had one side-effect that he was trying to fix: it would cause him to incessantly chase you no matter where you went until he finally caught you.’
“The spy also reported to the Queen where the sorcerer was spending the night. The Queen thanked the spy for his report. She sent word to a company of her army stationed inside the palace to go to this location and capture this sorcerer. They left immediately and went to both the tavern and the inn where the sorcerer had said he was staying, but when they returned, the company reported that they could not find any sign of the sorcerer in either location. They received reports from the innkeeper that the sorcerer received a guest and fled the inn shortly before the company arrived.
“With this latest news, the Queen suspected she may have a saboteur within her strategists. She concluded that such a saboteur might also be able to sneak the sorcerer into the palace, and this possibility troubled the Queen. It seemed only a matter of time before the sorcerer would gain access to the palace. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, the Queen plotted to lure the sorcerer into the palace and set a trap for him.
“Not knowing whom she could trust, she discussed this strategy with one of her closest friends, an elderly wizard who had been loyal to both the Queen and her father before her. The two created a plan to host a grand masquerade ball in the palace, hoping the sorcerer would attend. (And before you ask, a ‘masquerade ball’ is a big party where Humans would get dressed up in different costumes and masks and would dance with each other.) With the costumes and masks involved with a masquerade ball, the Queen surmised it would be appealing for the sorcerer to use this opportunity to try to approach and charm her. The Queen would also have a host of her guards disguised as guests to apprehend the sorcerer if he appeared at the ball. The Queen and the wizard also devised a backup plan in case the sorcerer would come and overwhelm her guards.
“Two weeks later, the whole nation buzzed in anticipation for this magnificent ball. Hundreds of invited guests filled the royal palace’s great hall, all dressed in vibrant costumes. The Queen herself was clothed in a sumptuous blue dress, but she and her guards were on the lookout for the sorcerer. Before too long, she recognized the brilliant red cape belonging to the sorcerer from across the room.
“‘Guards! There he is!’ the Queen shouted. Before they could react, the sorcerer uttered a few unrecognizable words, and the room suddenly stood still. Everyone was frozen in time. Everyone, that is, but the Queen and the sorcerer.
“‘At last, I finally have the pleasure of meeting you, Your Royal H
ighness. You’ve made it quite difficult for me to gain an audience with you,’ the sorcerer said while making his way toward the Queen, maneuvering around the immobilized guests. The Queen slowly backed away from the sorcerer, heading toward the closest exit, a balcony overlooking the palatial gardens.
“‘Your reputation precedes you. What do you intend to do to me, you Scoundrel?’ the Queen replied.
“‘I intend to make you my wife, and then you will make me your King, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it! Don’t bother running, because I’ll find you wherever you go.’
“‘Well, we’ll see about that!’ And with that, the Queen spoke a new spell:
“‘By the power of my might, let me depart this place;
Flying higher than a kite, let me go into space!’
“Suddenly, the Queen shot out through the open door to the balcony and continued upward through the sky and headed out of the atmosphere and into space! She was protected from the empty cold of space by a magic gray bubble surrounding her body. The sorcerer, compelled to follow the Queen wherever she went, spoke the same spell and left the great hall in a similar fashion, enveloped in a red bubble.
“After the sorcerer left the palace, all of the remaining people present at the ball could move again. They were unaware of what had transpired while being frozen, but the guards identified both the Queen and the sorcerer had vanished. The elderly wizard, who had been in the council of the Queen, informed everyone that the Queen departed the nation while being chased by the sorcerer. Showing her great love for the people of her nation, the Queen would rather give up the throne and thwart the plans of this evil sorcerer than allow him to have control over her and the nation. She had appointed the wizard as an interim ruler while he could find a suitable replacement. Eventually, a new King was crowned, and the nation continued to prosper under the wise and compassionate leadership of this new King.
Declaration Page 15