Chapter 2 - Part F

The trip to the surface was completed in seconds and as rematerialisation completed Carelle looked around, peering into the darkness she realized that she could not see the light from the universal core that washed the rest of the galaxy, as Fernum’s programming adjusted her vision levels she came to realize that this was what passed for midday on this planet, an uncomfortably hot and humid noontime, she turned down the temperature control on her environmental suit. the planet was unique by any standards, and not in a good way. They appeared to be standing in the centre of a small village, a dusty square where the occasional spear of grass struggled to survive the trampling feet of the crowds swirling around them, shoving, pushing, shouting and cursing. Dogs roamed at will, not the glossy intelligent creatures she was used to but skinny snarly looking things, naked children were fighting inside an almost empty trough while a worn donkey ignoring them lapped at its base and a woman screamed at them to get out and go home, the children ignored her, as did the scurrying passersby. Many multistoried buildings were squashed together around the edges of the square leaning in a way that suggested they were holding each other up and if one fell they all would. This was horrible, so dreadfully different from life outside the veil. Waldor where people dwelt in living houses crafted from plants that were woven and grown into solid structures, if you wanted new room it would be grown to your exacting specifications, the Imperial Planet where all buildings were made of highly polished metals and decorated with coloured enamel mosaics dotted with gems of many hues, cuts and a hidden technological functionality. She had never seen a planet without a distinctive form of grace and beauty before this. The buildings, like the people, looked like they had grown out of the mud and looking more closely she realized that while the people were simple dirty the buildings actually were made out of mud, baked mud and straw bricks. The streets leading away from the square were narrow, and squalled, And then with horror she looked again at the people, closely, people with limbs missing, obviously long missing as they were using the stumps, people who were blind sitting in doorways begging for something only to be ignored by the crowds, those naked children with every knob on the backbones protruding, it was possible to identify each rib individually, not only was the world dark the people were dark in spirit. She saw a women lean out of an upstairs window and toss a bucket of what smelt like raw sewage onto the road, splashing into the fish displayed in a vendors trolley which he was trying to push through the crowd, he swore at the woman who gave him the finger and tossed out another pails worth.

“For this you started a war?” she wanted to cry, to hit Fernum, to shout at him but instead she continued quietly, “You destroy my world for this?” hand covering mouth and nose she tried not to breath “these poor people, they have no joy, no peace in their souls and definitely not the grace and beauty of the rest of us outside the veil, if this is what your ideas are producing then why don’t you give up and come back to us?”

“Please remember, there is a war on,” Fernum emphasized the is, “My people are the victims of the emperors policies, if they are maimed it is permanent, they die of old age before they reach their hundredth year, while still children, infants by our standards, as they do not have access to regen. They have no idea that there are worlds full of people out there, they think they are alone in the galaxy. they don’t know there is another way to live, they have no idea what they are missing out on and I can’t tell them… that’s what the Emperor has condemned these people to.” Fernums voice had hardened, anger evident in his eyes.

Chapter 2 – Part E

Stepping off of the Transmitter Plate Carelle quickly worked her costume menu to replace the environmental suit with a ship suit, slim fitting for comfort and variations on purple in colour simply because she liked it. Fernum’s ship suit was a pale yellow shot through with gold thread, when his programming was complete he led the way to the bridge.

“I see you’ve maintained the standard layout,” Carelle commented, glancing down corridors as they went past.
“Didn’t see much point in changing anything” was Fernum’s reply “we all know where everything is this way and anyhow most of the action takes place on the planet’s surface, not much point making changes when we’re not here that often.”

While Fernum dialed open the iris to a spare parts locker Carelle examined his world in more detail through a window set into wall of the viewing deck above the bridge. As worlds went it was a small one, only just big enough to escape being classified as a worldlet. It looked like a translucent black pearl, lit from the inside, the veil, which she had been standing on earlier, had a dark oily sheen and an opaque cloudiness which moved around concealing and then revealing what was inside. The veil, unique in a universe that celebrated diversity, it was designed to be a physical barrier between this world and the rest of the Universe. At the very center of the world was one small star, or sun as she knew the inhabitants called it, a handful of planets orbited the sun and a double handful of moons orbited the planets. The one inhabitable planet was again on the small side, even for the planets in this system, 100 of them would only take up a corner of Woldor their own home world, and a comparison to the Imperial Planet was simply ludicrous.

“Here it is”, Fernum hurried over carrying an opal, it was a rod about half the length of her little finger and shaped like a star on the top, “slip it into one of the empty sockets on your collar bone” he said as he handed her jewel, light flashed across it picking out the cool blues and greens and then igniting the fiery reds and oranges. Carelle held the jewel to the left side of her collar bone just below the meeting of neck and shoulder and pressed, skin painlessly parted making space for the opal which clicked into place embedding one end in bone and leaving the other visible, yet another spot of beauty which had a hidden functionality. She felt her operating system processing, classifying and then installing the programs on the chip, her senses detected the changes as the colour red and smells of Lychee.

“It will take a few moments” Fernum handed her a glass of grape juice, “your favorite, the main adaptations are to your vision, one of the side effects of the Veil is that it is much darker in Edan than what you are used to, the chip compensates by altering the parameters in your visual cortex temporarily, the changes only take effect while you are inside the veil and will have no effect once you leave. It also renders you invisible to the colonists, again an effect that will not work outside the veil.” Fernum’s smile flashed “I have not forgotten your penchant for practical jokes, so I won’t be giving you ammunition to use against me at a later date.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “A final advantage is that you can use it to connect to me at anytime and any place, this feature does work in the rest of the universe.” The look he gave her was somber “I noticed you no longer wear My Jewel, or Bhree’s, I want you to keep this, and get another from Bhee, he is still our brother.”

Chapter 2 – Part D

Now it was Carelle‘s turn to sigh, “I don’t know” she murmured, “all I know is that you have destroyed my world, either way I’m going to lose one of you. Unless you surrender and go back…” the sentence ended on a hopeful note but the look in her eye indicated that she knew it was a false hope. Fernum’s twisted smile confirmed the falsity. “You know I can’t do that, and your refusal to choose, the isolation you have imposed upon yourself ensures that you lose both of us, you are going to have to choose Carelle”
Ignoring his words, so like their fathers, Carelle changed the subject, “show me your world, these changes you wanted to make that were so important, I would like to see them in action.”

Fernum smiled with delight, “first we’ll need to go up to my ship, you’ll need to make some changes to your environmental suit programming, I have a spare chip you can use” and fitting action to intent he took her hand “two to beam up” he said while pressing a diamond embedded just behind his right ear. As the matter transmitter began it work Carelle felt him squeeze her hand, she could still feel the pressure as they rematerialized on the deck of his ship, the mother ship, base of his soon to be empire.

Chapter 2 - Part C

Turning away Fernum looked out into the heart of the universe, towards the imperial planetary system, “We never had a chance to try new ideas when we were system rulers, we always had to follow their Law. They’ve made the whole universe follow their Law. They’re never open to suggestion about how the Law could be changed to make things better. Some of the laws are so trivial, why is it important to keep a law about desire? I’ll tell you why, by making a law that says ‘Be content with what you have” They ensure that no one will ‘rise above their place’. There will never be anyone to challenge their so called superiority. So we spend thousands of cycles doing the little jobs, running their errands and they make it sound so grand by calling it a mission.” Fernum glanced back at her, the pitch of his voice had risen slightly and taken on a hard edge, moderating the pitch to a lower more resonant sound he cleared his throat, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to belittle you, I’m sure the mission they have offered is very important” He sighed and swung around to face her “it’s just that I get so irritated by the stratagem they use to keep us busy, to keep us from questioning their so called wisdom.” His voice retained the hard edge but other wise was indistinguishable from Mykal’s as he mimicked the prince ‘Do this, do that! It’s essential to the smooth running of the empire…and be happy while you do it, don’t reach for more, stay in your place, don’t call us we’ll call you.’ Fernum sighed again, “All I wanted was one place where I could try my ideas, to prove that they worked” He faced her, eyes direct, open honest and filled with a deep sadness, “was that so much to ask? When you consider how much there is out here” his arm motion took in the whole sweep of the starscape, from edge to edge and into the universal core with its light pulsing out illuminating the heavens.