Test of Magnitude (The Torian Reclamation) (27 page)

“Yes. They had begun playing a game as I was leaving.”

“I knew it. I don’t think your governor has even slept in the last three days. Not much, anyway. He is addicted to that extat game. Won’t leave his office, won’t get any important work done.”

“Maybe you should talk to him about that then,” Mip7 said.

“Oh, I intend to, son. First things first, though. You want to hear how I spent my day?”

“Sure.”

“Destroying those games. I rounded them up from all the military facilities of Cardinal-4 and had them dumped out into space with the garbage residue. There is now a new standing order for all military personnel here. Polwar is off-limits. It is not to be seen in our lounges or barracks, and it is not to be played by anyone who is on duty or on call. It is not to be transported on military vehicles. If I could, I would ban it for off-duty as well—anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Perhaps I’ll be able to actually implement that in the near future.”

“So,” Mip7 said, “you are lobbying to make it a forbidden game? Interesting.”

“You’re extat right,” Olut6 said. “That’s what they were doing.”

“Who?”

“You know who.”

Mip7 set his glass down and thought for a moment.

“No!”

“Yes. I have a few of the ground boys up here right now. I had them separated and interrogated individually. A couple of them just broke down, poor guys. But I got what I wanted, a full confession. They were all playing it. That thing has taken over the ground bases like a virus. Extat alien device has infected our whole military. They couldn’t even tear themselves away to come to our aid during an enemy attack!”

Mip7 held his head. “No. Erob, no. That was it. That had to be it. Yes—it makes sense. That’s how they softened us up for the attack.”

“Exactly. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I have the High General right where I want him. You should have heard him buckle under when I confronted him. He is quite adamant that I not make this information public.”

“What is it you want from the High General?”

“You haven’t checked the news recently, have you?”

“No. I was going to do that now.”

“Go ahead.”

Mip7 turned on his lightpad and scrolled over to the news screen.

“They’ve found them!”

“Yes,” Olut6 replied. “It isn’t supposed to be public, but it leaked. The astronomers have located the invaders. And they are believed to be de-boarding their warships. ”

“What action does the High General propose to take?” Mip7 asked.

“If it was up to him, perhaps nothing,” Olut6 said. “But it’s not up to him now. It’s up to me.”

“You really have assumed that much power, just by having possession of some embarrassing information?”

“Yes. Extat, the ground troops are all polluted by that infernal game and are near-worthless anyway. It may soon contaminate the public population as well. If we are going to do anything, we have to do it now, ourselves.”

“You can count on me to serve in whatever capacity I may, Commander.”

“I know that, son, and appreciate it. For Erob’s sake, you’re an extat civilian, but you’re one of the best I have. Maybe this is the way it should be. I have a special assignment for you that falls outside the realm of standard military operations.”

“You want me to go fetch Brandon?”

“Not just yet. I have something else for you to do first.”

Mip7 noticed an urgent message on his lightpad just then and opened it.

“Oh no,” he said as he read it.

“I think you’ll like it actually,” Olut6 said.

“No, I have a message from Landen. Brandon’s been bitten by a serpent. A fire adder, they say.”

Olut6 looked concerned. “Is he going to live?”

“Yes. The Sheen treated him and he is recovering. Will be a few days before he can travel, though.”

“That ought to be just about right,” Olut6 said. “You realize, of course, that fire adders are only legend, and reports of them are widely thought to be illusions brought on by serpent venom. Right? But why would you take a fragile creature like Brandon to C5?”

“The prophet sent us there,” Mip7 said.

Olut6 cocked his head.

“Arkan9, the Sheen. It’s a long story. He’s one of the captives now. Ask the governor about him. He predicted all of this, including an alien infection in our society.”

“He’s the one who helped you revive the Earthlings, right?”

“Yes. It was all Arkan9’s idea. We would have revived more of them, but a Science Complex director turned sore against us, and he has the C2 governor’s support in whatever he decides. We had Chancellor Renal-5 on our side, but that director swayed the High Chancellor to theirs.”

“Interesting.” Olut6 turned on his own lightpad and began tapping on it.

 “Director Markin1 of RL-71?”

“That’s him.”

“We’ll have to do something about him, then.”

Mip7 perked up at Olut6’s last comment. It was beginning to look like Brandon was right. This Torian military leader was going to be the source of their help after all. Mip7 took a long drink.

“I’m surprised the astronomers took this long to locate the invaders,” Mip7 said. “Couldn’t have been a difficult task. All they had to do was watch the Azaar system and wait for them to appear, right?”

Olut6 shook his head while continuing to tap on his lightpad.

“No,” he said. “They’re not at Azaar.”

Chapter Thirteen

Redlower-20 was good medicine, no doubt about it. Brandon wasn’t sure if it really had pain-killing properties, but it made him feel good enough everywhere else that he was able to ignore the spot that hurt. As a pure sleeping aid, he found it to be unsurpassed.

Brandon slept much of the time in the days following the snakebite. The villagers, whom Madkin3 had initially warned about not being “warm and friendly,” turned out to be quite warm and friendly after all. They were always coming by his cabin to check on him, forcing him to get up and walk to meals, often helping him along and insisting he needed to move about to help with the healing process. One of them even gave him a hand-carved walking stick as a gift.

On the fourth day, Brandon was feeling refreshed and energetic again. The snakebite wound was healing and had become only a minor annoyance, although he still used the walking stick, partly because he liked it. All the villagers seemed to suddenly have great respect for Brandon.

“Serpent venom was once intentionally ingested by Sheen as part of a traditional ceremony,” Madkin3 said to him after dinner. “In small doses, of course. In times past, Sheen would study the law after taking a dose of venom. It was said to give the law life and animation, making it easier to comprehend.”

“I experienced something like that myself,” Brandon said. “I cannot read your language, but the words carved on the rock were coming out of it. Why did your people dispense with that tradition?”

Madkin3 cocked his head. “I suppose if all ancient traditions survived, there would be no revered historic periods. Yes, we witnessed your transformation as the pillar saved you. The law has now been imputed to your heart. Rarely have we heard such harmony in a verbal manifestation of the primary Erob principals. It could only have come from someone with no prior knowledge or training in the written law, but whose heart has been aligned with it. You have been blessed with wisdom, as you stated, but we have been blessed with this visitation, through you.”

“You think it was the rock that saved me?”

“Yes. More specifically, your willingness to focus on the rock, and your rejection of death’s seduction.”

Brandon felt these Sheen were giving him too much credit. It was their attendance and medical aid which saved him, if anything. Still, Madkin3’s words did resonate with him at some level. If Brandon had allowed his mind to drift off into the colorful sky, instead of heeding Madkin3’s instructions to focus, he wondered whether he would be here now. Something inside him told him he wouldn’t.

“I want to thank you all for your help and hospitality,” Brandon said. “I’m a stranger here, far from home, and your kindness is invaluable to me. I regret that I am unable to repay you. If there is some work I can do…”

Madkin3 held up a hand. “You have already repaid us in ways you cannot understand. We feel it is we who owe you a debt, in fact.” The other Sheen at the table nodded and muttered agreements.

“However,” Madkin3 continued, “if you were to remain with us, I would recommend you begin ingesting venom, in very small doses, in an attempt to build up a tolerance to it.”

 “I’m sure that would be wise,” Brandon said, “but I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here.”

“Yes, I understand,” Madkin3 said. “But you are most welcome to live among us, should your path lead you to return. You should spend some time rebalancing now, for the duration of your visit.”

Balance again. He should have guessed. It was what the Sheen were all about. Brandon offered a cordial smile.

“Certainly,” he said. “Whatever you suggest. What did you have in mind?”

“Come with me.” Madkin3 stood up.

Brandon got up and followed him. Several of the Sheen came along as well. They walked toward the back side of the village. Brandon found himself becoming tense as they drew close to the place where he was bitten, but then they turned right and ended up in the area he had never made it to. There was a large hut near a fire ring. When they came close to it, Brandon could see the hut was actually a tent made of a tan-colored cloth. From a distance, it would appear to be just another simple structure in the village.

Two of the Sheen entered the tent through a slit in the side, and then reappeared from the inside pulling the cloth back. It opened like a shower curtain along rails at the top. They slid the covering all the way around so the three sides were open, with just the roof cover remaining and the drawn tent cloth serving as a backdrop to a familiar, glowing object.

“The halcyon arc!” Brandon said.

Madkin3 nodded. “The other one, yes.”

Brandon remembered now. Arkan9 had mentioned the existence of one other. So, the Landen Sheen kept theirs hidden inside a tent, but could unveil it when they wished. That practice seemed wise, considering what happened to the arc at Uden. It was already glowing brightly, however, and no one was even close to it yet.  Also, this one had a greenish color to its glow, not yellowish like the one at Uden.

“I’m afraid these things don’t like me much,” Brandon said. “They always light up like a star whenever I get anywhere near them.”

“That glow is not from you,” Madkin3 said. “It’s been doing that since the day of the attack. We don’t know why. Some of us feel it is strained from the removal of its counterpart.”

“It knows the other one was stolen?”

“That’s the most popular theory. Another is that wherever the other has been taken, it is now under a severe workload. Their energy is connected. We don’t understand how. These instruments are of Erob.”

“Where is Erob?” Brandon asked.

“Very near the center of the galaxy.”

“Isn’t there a black hole there?”

“If that is how you refer to it, yes. We believe their world exists on the verge of the vanishing point. It cannot be seen on scopes, or observed with any type of technology, probably because it is so close to the edge. It cannot, therefore, be safely approached either, although attempting such a thing would be a violation of Erob law, aside being a fool’s errand.”

Brandon felt himself drawn to the halcyon arc. Madkin3 must have sensed this as well, as he stepped out of the way and extended his arm towards it. Brandon wasn’t quite ready yet, however.

“You haven’t had contact with Erob now in …how long? Hundreds of years?”

“More than nineteen hundred years.”

“Madkin3, isn’t it possible their world was sucked into the black hole, perhaps as the event horizon expanded? And that’s why no one has heard from them in so long?”

“There are those among the native Torians who choose to speculate such grim things, but we Sheen know better. The prophets foretold of all this long ago. The law neither lapses nor weakens, but the untethered heart tends to, especially when swayed by an unbalanced mind. Two thousand years is not such a long time, when Erob has existed for many millennia. There has been no reason for them to initiate any further interaction after the coalition was fully established, and the Erob seed had been planted among us. They may reappear someday when and if the need arises. Meanwhile, we have the law, and we have the teachers of the law, who keep themselves pure. We feel the halcyon arcs are a sign of Erob continuance.  The arcs have no power of their own—no substructure, no working parts. Their energy comes directly from Erob.”

Brandon nodded. That did seem to be compelling evidence. It was interesting how most of Torian society now regarded the arc as nothing more than an ancient religious relic, a superstition from ages past. Yet, there it was, glowing of its own power, with no explainable source for that power other than what had been believed and accepted for two thousand years.

Brandon approached the arc and sat before it. As he did, a faint yellow light appeared just inside the green glow that was emanating from the rim. Brandon felt …good. Several other Sheen sat down nearby him. Brandon closed his eyes. Tranquility ensued. He wasn’t bored, and he didn’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything. It was wonderfully fulfilling just to sit there. He pictured the stress of the space battle and the pain of the snakebite washing away as he embraced a sense of renewal.