Decima
by Philip Berry
Borderland precinct emergency service, Capp colony, 6th colonial
shell, Tarnon empire.
Caller: Beth Flentta, Junior School teacher
Emergency call, transcript
: Borderland emergency service, how can I help?
] They’ve gone.
: Who’s gone Madam?
] The children, the children. Help us! (crying). Please hurry! The Pier
of Lights, Pale Lake. Pleeeease.
: An interceptor is already on its way Madam. Please calm yourself. Are
you currently in danger?
] We all are. All of us. They were in the lake, the children, they just
disappeared. They made holes in the water.
: How many children Madam? Are you their teacher?
] Five. The water just fell into the holes, there were waves,
whirlpools, the others nearly drowned.
: How many are you in total?
] Thirty. And three teachers. Please, you must find them, please…
: ETA is two arcs, you should be able to see the Interceptor coming
from the ranges now. Please take the children onto land…
] I have, I have.
: Good, now stay calm. What is your name?
] Beth Flentta. I see the ship, it’s here! I’ve got to go. Sorry, thank
you, thank you.
Ends
*****
Officer Zenko Gat, first responder Pale Lake incident, Borderland
precinct, Capp colony
Oral report, recorded on return to Hub (transcript)
“I saw them clearly as I circled down to the landing area. The class
was sheltering in a viewing cabin, but one of the teachers was still on
the pier, waving, pointing out to the lake. The surface was calm, but I
could see wet splashes across the pier, suggesting there had been high
waves. I landed and ran to the pier. As I approached the lake began to
swell. The light, which had been fading anyway, darkened further. The
teacher screamed and pointed. There was a body on the surface of the
water, but it was not a school child. As I was estimating the distance
and preparing to dive in the teacher shouted and pointed to another.
Then another, and another, and finally a fifth. They were in a tight
group. Four were motionless, one was trying to swim. I dived in and
headed for the moving body.
"As I approached she rolled over to face me. She had grey eyes, but I
could not see her hair, as she wore a warrior’s helmet, and for clothes
she wore an armoured vest and a knee length, fine metal skirt. It
looked like some sort battle dress from a history book. I held off, but
she reached out, and cried, “It’s done... it’s done... help me, help
me.” I held her and pulled her to the pier. The teacher reached down
and helped her up. Then the teacher recognised her. “Esther, is it you?
Esther?” The female nodded, weeping. She was one of the missing girls,
but grown up, an adult. I went for the others, I reached every one of
them in turn, but they were all dead. They had wounds, they were
bleeding from the upper body. I don’t understand. They were children,
and they came back as soldiers. I don’t understand.”
Ends
*****
Dr Lasme Yun, receiving psychologist, Pale Lake incident, Capp Colony
Psychological evaluation (excerpt)
Esther’s last memory relates to the school trip, specifically jumping
into the water from the Pier of Lights. The children were allowed into
the water ten at a time, and Esther was in the first group. She
remembers being a confident swimmer. She remembers nothing of what
happened after the disappearance. The next reported memory is of
thrashing in the same water as an adult, in battle dress. She felt
pain, which she attributes to the transportation, but she had clearly
been held by the neck resulting in bruises which must have hurt her.
Over three days I probed her memory using verbal, non-verbal/
non-invasive and non-verbal/invasive methods. Mobile
electroencephalographic readings revealed no voluntary concealment
whatsoever. I was not able to uncover any details of her time off the
planet. We have no insights into her experience. The only clues are
emotional. She remembers anger being directed at her, she remembers an
atmosphere of vengeance, she expresses grief for the four friends who
were killed, but overlying this there is also deep sense of
satisfaction (hence her comment, ‘It’s done.’ – she cannot say what is
done) The positives have neutralised the negatives. She is at peace,
yet she has no formed theories to explain the incident.
Ends
*****
Benzalen Franc, Aide de Camp to 2nd rank General Ezekial Ket-Den,
Gralian Army
Genth Offensive - Diary Entry
We are in stalemate, which for an expeditionary force is the precursor
to defeat. We can sustain ourselves only for so long. They don’t admit
it in the General’s tent, they don’t let themselves voice it, but we
all know it. None of the aides want to appear negative, we encourage
our generals when they go off into offensive strategies, but the most
realistic discussions are defensive.
Tonight I threw light-maps over the wooden table that must be taken
wherever we strike camp. Ket-Den models himself on the ancients,
maintaining traditional ways, boots always buffed to a high shine, a
real fire crackling in the corner despite our fears that it will catch
at the tent’s side. He has a slight lisp, which should make him sound
soft and vulnerable, but no way - it gives him a quiet menace.
Anyway I lit up the maps, steered a bird’s eye view across the battle
terrain of the day, then further afield, over enemy lines into
Tarnon-held territory. We examined the landscapes, the features, the
rivers, and pretended to consider a forward move, around the bulk of
the forces. Then reality kicked in: the Genth chasm. It sits in front
of us, a thick black gash on the map. We must cross this if we are to
storm the Tarnonian capital. But how, when the approach is so exposed
and their missiles rain so heavily?
I ranged up and back with the light-map, then focussed down on our back
lines, and the territory into which our forces must eventually find
safety in defeat. I can only admit it here. As aide-de-camp I see all
the mortality data. We have lost four million from nineteen planets on
this single campaign. They come here in arms and battle-dress, they
believe the propaganda they have heard at home, our force of numbers,
our invincible strength, they arrive in lines, in huge rectangles under
the barely visible force-fields… I see them smiling, it’s warm and
windless under there, but when they advance and stare at the chasm’s
maw up the smiles fade.
I stand above them, calculating, judging trajectories. The Tarnonian
volleys fly, I watch the missiles’ arc and hope that our spies have at
last found the frequencies needed to block them. But no, they sink
through the force field, barely slowing in descent. They flare above
the new recruits, destroying them. And tomorrow the same, and the day
after the same again… until, one day, we run out of recruits.
Or... we find the right frequency, and neutralise those missiles.
That’s all we need, one failed salvo. That will give us time to charge
across the chasm and enter Tarn Origin City for the first time. It’s
all we need. One - good - day.
End
*****
Dr Sebastian Pemta, Chief of Pathology, Academic Health Centre, Capp
Colony
Post Mortem, main findings and comparisons of bodies recovered from
Pale Lake Incident
I examined 4 bodies, 2 adult men and 2 adult women. Herein are
comparative observations. Please refer to individual files for
measurements, organ weights, biochemical analyses and permanent images.
All the bodies were well nourished. The wrists and ankles showed no
marks of captivity such as binding or chain sores. On the right upper
arm of each body there was a faint series of numbers, ten figures in
each. These number series were evidently made by sub-epidermal laser.
It is not possible to say when, but the preserved proportions suggest
they were inscribed in adulthood.
Cause of death for each person was a sabre cut to the angle of the neck
and shoulder, although in three bodies there were additional wounds to
legs and torso.
Traces of blood were detected using a nucleic sweep scan. There were no
visible traces, but the lake water may have washed most of it off.
Further analysis of these blood traces confirmed that it did not come
from any of the four corpses (there was also no match with a sample
taken from the survivor Esther Wan). The sources were Tarnonian and
alien. Amplification techniques revealed fragments of Gralian
sub-nucleic structure. I am 96.7% confident the alien blood traces were
Gralian.
End
*****
Gralian council of war, Genth offensive
Present: General Ezekial Ket-Den, General Penlan, General Dakin.
Minutes taken from permatrack recording
General Ezekial Ket-Den: This is total war General Penlan, we must
consider all solutions. All!
General Penlan: What do you mean?
General Ezekial Ket-Den: I mean it is time to sink to their level. We
cannot maintain the moral high-ground, it is naïve, we are being
annihilated. The men and women know this. I see it in their eyes as
they approach the chasm. They no longer believe we can cross it. And
tomorrow’s soldiers, those who have not yet been recruited from the
wider Gralian Empire, are coming to hear of the daily disaster. I sense
mutiny. We need a win. By any means.
General Penlan: Well tell us! What do you have in mind?
General Ezekial Ket-Den: A way to replenish our ranks.
General Penlan: Good. That is good. More, please. Where from?
General Ezekial Ket-Den: The homes of our enemy.
General Penlan: Tarnons? What do you mean?
General Ezekial Ket-Den: What I said. I know of a way to take Tarnon’s
from their worlds and insert them into our ranks.
General Penlan: How? It is absurd. It… it breaks…
General Ezekial Ket-Den: The rules of war? The Third Convention? You
think we should be noble, observe the rules even as our lands are
overrun and our way of life is repressed? This is what I mean. Total
war.
General Penlan: What is the technology? If you can take Tarnonians away
from their planets why not just kill them all, or all those of military
age. Just wipe them off the battle field?
General Ezekial Ket-Den: No, the technique is iso-densitronic and
iso-volumetric. It does not destroy, it only transfers mass. And only
biological mass.
General Penlan: But still, you could use it to...
General Ezekial Ket-Den: No. We must use it well, ingeniously. It will
not win the war on its own, but the message it sends will generate
absolute nihilism, a complete loss of morale in the Tarnonian
leadership. br>
General Penlan: You can actually deliver this? Where did you...?
General Ezekial Ket-Den: No matter. We vote. Dakin? Rouse yourself. Do
you agree?
End
*****
Thaspa’s ‘History of The Wars of The Spiral Arm’
Chapter 205
The tide began to turn in Year: Haze. A new technology was developed
and applied – biomass transfer. It was weaponised by teams of
scientists working on an unnamed moon, funded by and according to the
instructions of General Ezekial Ket-Den. A cargo ship carried the
generator into orbit around one of Tarnon’s colony planets, Capp. One
in ten adult men and women were taken. They appeared fifteen arcs later
in the ranks of the Gralians, on Tarnon itself, armed and bewildered.
They did not rebel, they did not dare to question. They were placed
into the front ranks and moved forward under the protection of
force-fields that were routinely penetrated by missiles fired from
their own armies. Millions were killed, but Gralian losses were
minimised and morale was preserved. The Tarnonian leadership, its
empire unwieldy and over-bureaucratic, did notice a reduction in the
provincial out-post of Capp initially, despite the signals and
representations that began to arrive in central government.
End
*****
Legionnaire Paulus Servilianus serving under General Scipio
Africanus, 2nd Punic war, Earth, Year: 215 BC
Journal entry
A visiting commander has come to learn from our General, Scipio
Africanus. Carthage will soon fall, we are sure of it, but elsewhere
the empire’s battles do not go so well, and the Emperor has decreed
that other generals should come here to learn. This visitor is intense.
He says little, and when he does he speaks quietly. I know why, I was
near him yesterday - he has a speech impediment! So he watches, he
nods, he makes mental notes. He was especially interested when, around
the campfire last night, the officers were described the old practise
of decimation. I spoke, because I have seen it. It’s not as old as they
say.
I was standing in line after the battle of ________, in the losing
ranks. Our commander, Genterex, old and grumpy always, and horribly
scarred, walked up and down the ranks and abused us for our cowardice
and our weakness. I had seen soldiers retreating, and pretending to be
dead on the field. He announced that 1 in 10 of us would lose our
lives, according to fate.
We looked from side to side, making calculations, trying to count along
the lines. Fear swept through us. Some of us vomited. A few tried to
change places, having decided they were standing in a 10 position. It
was stupid. Centurions honed in on those who tried to move and took
them out front. One or two tried to run away, down the ravine behind
us, but they were quickly found.
I stood still, and made peace with my Gods and my family. I closed my
eyes. I heard a faint tap, but I did not feel it. Genterex had touched
the shoulder of the man two places down from me. He was dragged
forward, crying. The chosen were placed on the edge of the ravine.
Other soldiers, by no means willing, were given instructions, and in a
blur of arms, blood and screams the work of correction was begun. But
this was not the biggest shock. Their places were taken by those we had
captured. Gerenterex forced them into line, while we looked on
disbelievingly. He made them fight for us, and they did. They had no
choice. We sent them forward, to soak up the first salvoes of catapult
and fire. It worked. We won the campaign, and we loved Gerenterex for
it.
I told this story, and our visitor listened, fascinated. I never saw
him again. He just walked away into the night.
End
*****
Pan-Galactic Truth & Transparency Commission
Source – Encrypted minutes from Tarnon Strategic External Operations
(TSEO). Chair of TSEOU (unnamed ‘A’) and unknown interlocutor.
File #54
A - I have an idea.
B - For...?
A - Victory, what else?
B - In the war? It’s barely started, what do you mean? These skirmishes
on the outer shell could fizzle out.
A - No. You know as well as I that a sectoral war is inevitable. It was
inevitable as soon as the Gralian emperor looked to this quadrant and
saw attractive planets within our sphere of influence. In fact it was
inevitable when nature, in its wisdom, decided that organic
reproduction and the evolution of two similarly capable species would
take place in two separate location in the galaxy. It’s what we do...
expand, steal, fight!
B - And your idea?
A - The Gralian armies will advance to the very gates of our capital. I
have analysed our strengths. There will be many off-planet battles, but
they will advance. We must accept this... you and I. We must plan for
that day, and not allow ourselves to be pulled into minor stratagems
elsewhere. Of course the preliminary battles must be fought well and
with all our will, to drain the Gralians of as many resources as
possible, but you and I must play the long game. We must arrange things
so that when the Gralians are outside our gates, we have a plan. Do you
understand? It will make us unpopular. We will be accused of
disloyalty. But please do not doubt my loyalty for one moment.
B – I am with you. Now tell me, what do you have in mind?
A – First, some history. I have studied their most talented General,
Ezekial Ket-Den. He is harsh, he is ingenious. He will surprise us. And
I know something else about him. He looks back to history. He has
toured armies and battles across time to learn tactics and techniques.
My people have tracked him, and that information is the understanding
how he will conduct himself. He has visited one planet and one era
several times – the only one he has re-visited - a pre-technological
civilisation on a planet near the edge of the quadrant. It may soon
become part of the Gralian empire. He visited eight times. He saw
something there that fascinated him, evidently, and I think I know what
it was.
B – What was it?
A – Using your enemies. Taking prisoners to fill your own ranks.
B – That is absurd.
A – It sounds absurd. But it works. It did work. It might work again.
We must make sure it works. If we are prepared, we can use Ezekial
Ket-Den’s weakness for the past to our advantage. But it will mean
making sacrifices. We, you, must be ready.
End
*****
Geostationary relay above Tarn Origin City.
Voice capture
I’ll be quick my love, we’re not supposed to be making contact. But
this may be the last chance. We’re doing fine, I don’t feel too bad.
The field above our heads throbs and hums, they have told us it has
been strengthened. And up ahead – they marched passed us this morning,
thousands and thousands of them – are reinforcements. I don’t recognise
their kind, the faces are different, they are taller. I think they come
from the periphery. But they are at the front. Our commander, General
Ezekial Ket-Den, is protecting us. He’s put the foreign legions in
harm’s way. I’ve got to go, the time has come. We’re moving, we’re
marching for the chasm.
End
*****
Cabinet meeting, Tarn Origin City.
Minutes
Her Excellency and First Lord Martha Panlik: I can’t believe you’re
asking this.
Fleet Admiral Blain: It’s disgusting.
Interior Minister Haldre: It’s... something!
TSEO chair (unnamed ‘A’): It doesn’t matter what it is. You can agree,
or not agree. All I can say is this – I know war, and this is war
predictable... this is a stratagem that will bring you victory.
Her Excellency and First Lord Martha Panlik: But what you propose
requires us to stand by and watch as hundreds of thousands are taken,
used...
Interior Minister Haldre: Run it by me again...
TSEO chair (unnamed ‘A’): Their strongest general, Ket-Den, will take
people from outside the theatre of war, our people. I know he will. And
we must let him.
Her Excellency and First Lord Martha Panlik: How many?
TSEO chair (unnamed ‘A’): It will not be measured in numbers, but in
time. We need time enough to play our cards.
Her Excellency and First Lord Martha Panlik: But how many... you must
have an estimate.
TSEO chair (unnamed ‘A’): Perhaps a million. Perhaps two.
Fleet Admiral Blain: WHAT!?
TSEO chair (unnamed ‘A’): It is absolutely necessary.
Fleet Admiral Blain: Can we really ask that of our people?
TSEO chair (unnamed ‘A’): Far away from here our enemies are be making
hard decisions too, decisions designed to destroy us. I apologise Your
Excellency, I don’t think a moral debate is what is needed here. It is
the practical debate that should concern us. Can it be done? Yes. Can I
deliver it? Yes. Will you, in this room, make the decision? Shall we
vote?
End
*****
Pan-Galactic Truth & Transparency Commission
Chief of TSEO (unnamed; ‘A’)
Private voice archive
A. The cabinet is in favour. I have called it Project Decima. I just
hope I have read Ket-Den correctly. Decisions cannot be made in the fog
of doubt. I must be confident. I must be sure.
End
*****
Benzalen Franc, Aide de Camp to 2nd rank General Ezekial Ket-Den,
Genth Offensive.
Diary entry
General Ezekial is a genius. He has replenished our ranks with
mercenaries! Somehow he, and those we had begun to doubt, have found a
way to bring in reinforcements. They look different, but I know where
they come from. I think I’m the only one of the General’s staff who
knows, and I have kept it to myself.
My grandmother kept a disc-icon in her quarters, and I remember turning
it in my hands when we visited. He was her first love, she told me
once, in a whisper. Even then, relationship with Tarnonians were
frowned upon. I remember his long chin, his narrow eyes, the flat
forehead... he looked different. And these new soldiers, the men and
the women, they look a little like him, not home-planet Tarnonian, but
related. From somewhere in the Empire. They are deserters, bought in to
strengthen our armies.
*****
Ambassador Nadia Susman, Representative of 6th colonial shell
collective
Communication to Tarn Origin City under diplomatic seal(excerpt)
...they have taken our people. Capp’s adult population has been reduced
by ten percent. We cannot survive another wave. The colony will no
longer be viable.
End
*****
Pan-Galactic Truth & Transparency Commission
Chief of TSEO (unnamed; ‘A’)
Private voice archive
A The first report has come in. Ezekial Ket-Den, the butcher, has begun
his perverse ‘decimation’ as I predicted. It must continue unabated
until the time is right. Until the group has been recruited. Not yet.
End
*****
Her Excellency and First Lord Martha Panlik (Supreme military
commander)
War Order #43
To: Chief of TSEO (unnamed ‘A’)
Our colonial losses are too great. You are hereby ordered to initiate
Project Decima before the second wave. Do not hesitate. Do not await
technological optimisation.
End
*****
Interrogation behind Gralian front line at Genth
Present - General Ezekial Ket-Den, Esther Wan, interrogator (unnamed).
Transcript
General Ezekial Ket-Den: What are those markings?
Esther Wan (struggling to speak): Code... Frequencies.
General Ezekial Ket-Den: For what?
Esther Wan: I told him... we want to help, we want the war to end.
General Ezekial Ket-Den: You’re babbling. How do these numbers help us?
Esther Wan: All together... five together... make the frequency, the
progression... missile frequency... shield freq...
General Ezekial Ket-Den: You seriously expect me to believe that you
have brought the key to calculating the shield frequencies needed to
deflect Tarnonian missiles?
Esther Wan: It’s why we came. We five... we are just a tiny fraction of
the disaffected. Our warlords have failed, allowed you to advance to
our capital, allowed you to steal men and women from our colonies...
it’s time for it to stop.
General Ezekial Ket-Den: Prove they work, these numbers.
Esther Wan: Take the numbers, apply them, see what happens...
Pause.
General Ezekial Ket-Den: (to interrogator) Get the others. Record the
numbers, give them to the shield technicians. Run them.
End
*****
Professor Mikal Brund, Chief Investigator, Decima project, Institute
of Ballistics and Martial Defense, Tarn Origin City.
Laboratory log book, pages 62-65
Challenge - rendering the trail invisible.
Currently - silver, photonic ripples, impossible to abrogate while tail
continues to transmit data.
Options, to d/w War Cabinet liason –
1. Maintain trail masking work-stream, my estimate to achieve full
invisibility = 2 years
2. Accept trace photonic signature; this is a high level military
decision, ?only one hit needed to achieve data backflow.
I favour 2.
End
*****
Benzalen Franc, Aide de Camp to 2nd rank General Ezekial Ket-Den,
Genth Offensive
Diary entry
It’s happened. We have the frequency! We have it. I watched from high
up the mountain, standing outside the General’s tent. The missile flew
in leaving a faint trace of silver in the fading light. I had seen the
same thing many times before, seen the shell sink through the field,
but this one was different. It descended, it entered the field, but it
was held... and then it blew, harmlessly, its light spreading across
the field’s roof. The silver trail pulsed with energy, then it faded.
And below, all the soldiers, Gralians, even the mercenaries, they
lived! They shouted, they held each other. At last we can repulse the
Tarnonian ordnance. The good day has come.
*****
Thaspa’s ‘History of The Wars of The Spiral Arm’.
Chapter 206
Liberated from fear, protected now from the missiles that continued to
come down (only to fizzle in the force-field) the Gralian army
approached the chasm. Their drones threw platinum seeds across the gap
and countless bridges composed of linear crystals rapidly distilled
from the mineral rich atmosphere. The armies marched forward and for
the first time Gralian feet touched the formal boundary of Tarn Origin
City.
End
*****
Pan-Galactic Truth & Transparency Commission
Source – Encrypted minutes from Tarnon Strategic External Operations
(TSEO). Unnamed interlocutors.
File #56
A. To make the Gralians believe they are traitors they will need to be
a cohesive group. They will need to look and sound as though they know
each other, they must be familiar.
B. A family?
A. No, it’s too unlikely. A locality.
B. But from what you were saying previously, we must take them when
they are mere children... if, indeed, the training will take as long as
you think.
A. It will.
B. A group of children who know each other. Easy. A class. A school
class.
A. That’s it.
B. We just need to choose a system, a planet.
A. The Gralians will choose the planet. Our group will come
from the planet where the recruitment takes place. They will be in the
second wave of recruits, their story, which we will have been drilled
into them, will be that they are sick of war, critical of their
leaders’ conduct of war... hence, they bring with them a gift.
B. We can be that flexible? Train and insert a cohesive group from a
specific system at such short notice?
A. Our technology can be directed to any system, in relatively short
order. If we bring the group in from a system unaffected by
people-theft they will be detected – differences in accents,
appearance, even genetic signature.
B. But how do we prepare them?
A. I have a solution to that. They must come from a different time.
Their subconscious cannot contain any pre-judgements concerning the
history of the war. We need clean minds for the training.
B. Then go back, surely, to a pre-war generation.
A. No, we can only go forward. You can’t take people with accomplished
futures out of time and get them to change course. Not safely. So they
must come from the future, and not just that, from many centuries
hence, where the history that we are living now has become bland, and
emotion regarding Grale flattened. We cannot send in people with any
significant emotional overlay. The furthest forward we can reach is 500
years. That’s the envelope we will apply.
B. But how long do we have? Once we know the identity of planet from
which Ket-Den has taken our people?
A. Strangely, a great deal of time. We activate the transfer after
Ket-Den’s first mass transportation, assess their suitability, train
them in a parallel time circuit, send them in fully prepared, and
wait...
B. Parallel?
A. A time-bud. Self-contained. However long the training takes, to us
it will be instantaneous.
B. Brilliant. [Pause] I have a question. You will think I’m being...
pathetic, perhaps.
A. Go on.
B. Can we give them back? These ‘traitors’. Can we give them back to
their families when they have completed their mission?
A. We can. But it will not necessarily be a happy return. They might
not all survive.
Pause
A. But these are details. We are talking about the survival of our
people.
B. We will be judged on the details.
A. We will be judged on the million who must be sacrificed to allow us
access. But do not worry... when history judges us we will be deep
underground, you and I.
End
*****
450th centenary of the birth of Professor Mikal Brund, Chief
Investigator, Decima project
Sector-wide broadcast (extract)
...and is chiefly remembered for achievements that brought him no glory
during his lifetime. Through his inspiring scientific leadership and
intellectual persistence the Institute of Ballistics and Martial
Defense developed a missile that was able to ‘steal’ vital codes from
Gralian defense intelligence systems during the Genth Offensive. By
means that are still obscure, and that will remain secret until the
Pan-Galactic Truth & Transparency Commission begins its work fifty
years from now, congruency between the Gralian defense shield and our
own missiles was achieved, allowing formulae to be relayed back to Tarn
Origin City. The war turned on this stratagem. When commanders in Tarn
Origin City received these formulae they were able to take control of
the shields and all those Gralian forces who stood under their
protection. Slowly, inexorably, those who had crossed the numerous
crystalline bridges were forced back, over the edge of chasm to their
deaths. Those who had not yet crossed the chasm were driven down the
sheer face of the mountain from which they had looked down on our
ancestors with such confidence. The Gralian commanders could not turn
of the fields or modify their frequencies in time. Resurgent Tarnonian
forces advanced up the mountain, across the chasm and through the
invaders’ seemingly endless encampment spread across the plain beyond...
*****
Pure-Sky Junior School, Capp colony
School report on Esther Wan, age 9, by teacher Beth Flentta (excerpt)
‘Esther is distractible. Sometimes it is as though her mind is
elsewhere. Yet she is highly intelligent, and confident in her own
abilities. She is strongly attached to four friends, and despite my
efforts to encourage a broader range of relationships this ’clique’
appears indestructible. Together, they present a formidable front, and,
while in no way unpleasant or rude, give the impression of putting the
world to rights. Esther is their leader in intellect and in play. Next
term I hope to...
End
*****
Pan-Galactic Truth & Transparency Commission
Chief of TSEO (unnamed)
Private voice archive
I met our future today. She is only nine. She has been taken from her
own world and her own time without warning, without permission. Yet she
seems to accept her predicament, it is as though she was prepared for
her life to be something more, something important. She and her four
friends are perfect together, and I am confident that we can train
them. I have decided that twenty is the correct age for deployment. We
will tattoo the missile frequencies when they are eighteen. Eleven
years... they must be kept safe, but at the same time they must be
hardened. The training school that we have built in the time-bud will
serve both purposes – I have seen it. And having seen them, the
children, I have decided that they will be returned to their own world
afterwards. For their families. I can predict much, but I cannot
predict how many, if any, will survive.
End
*****
Thaspa’s ‘History of The Wars of The Spiral Arm’
Chapter 207
The Gralian armies struck camp on the plain and looked down over the
Tarnon capital that spread down the side of the mountain and onto the
flatlands below. They had the high ground, and their commanders roamed
the tents and the fires to see their soldiers and spread the scent of
victory. The transported Tarnons who had formed the vanguard and
crossed the chasm first, albeit hesitantly and under duress, their
boots crunching on the unpolished crystal aggregates, were corralled on
one side. They eyed the edge of the chasm and feared the worst. Night
fell. Come the morning, the Gralian army would descend with fearsome
momentum.
The surrounding force-field made the stars above them wobble and shift
as the ancient light was refracted. This was the only visual evidence
that the field was active. Its presence made the army sleep more
soundly; word had got around that that it was impervious now, the
Tarnonian missile frequencies having been delivered by traitors.
The Tarnons’ terrible trap was sprung in the dead of night. Gralian
soldiers at the camp’s edge felt themselves pushed from their
ground-mates and rolled out of their tents. An invisible pressure, a
wall of air, nudged them acorss the camp, through smouldering fires,
over cooking pots, towards the chasm. They began to pile up on one
another. The force-field had turned against them. They could not escape
it. The edge of the chasm drew ever closer.
And thus, the tide turned. The fifty-year war that had brought a
Gralian force within sight of the Tarn Origin City began to draw to an
end.
End
*****
Geostationary relay above Tarn Origin City.
Voice capture, positive identification - Benzalen Franc, Aide de
Camp to 2nd rank General Ezekial Ket-Den
One day you may hear this, I know there are sensors in the
atmosphere... even if you don’t... You will, I know you will. I will
always love you Mary, and Jason, my dear boy, I hope you will remember
me as a loyal man, with a little bravery... I saw them, the fifth
columnists, the ones my General interrogated and believed, the
mercenaries with a secret so great even I was not forbidden to see
them. I saw them running from the camp today, immediately after our
forces on the other side of the chasm were so brutally murdered, swept
over the edge, screaming, flailing, but silent to us, encapsulated in
the force-field that was supposed to protect them. It was the five, I
know it, something they brought with them, a betrayal. My General has
left the camp, his many advisors persuaded him to seek safety, to get
back onto the plain ... but I refused, I belong here with the men and
women I helped organise into those powerless ranks. So I chased them,
the five, past smouldering fires and half dismantled tents, I chased
them, with a small force under my command, and I slew them, all but
one. I looked them in the eye before I struck with my sword, and I
demanded that they told me what they had done. And one of them, a
woman, she smiled up at me, and she bared her arm, and she pointed to
the numbers barely visible on the skin, and she laughed. I struck her
dead. The fifth, their leader, she stared back at me, her eyes calm, as
though she knew what must happen, but as I raised by arm she
disappeared. The man holding her by the neck fell forward, confused.
And the four whom I had executed, they too had gone, sunk into the dead
grass, dissolved into the fearful atmosphere. It was they who tricked
us, deceived my General, I am sure... Remember my good deeds Jason,
Mary, forgive my evil deeds... all were done to ensure a better future
for the Gralian people...
End
*****
From Former Chief of TSEO (unnamed ‘A’).
Post-dated letter to the Five Families of Capp, bearing instruction:
‘to be delivered by TSEO (or its derivative) agents on the occasion of
a disappearance 500 years from now’
Dear _________
You will not have heard of me, nor me of you. But by now you will have
lost a child, perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently through terrible
injuries or the trauma of travel through space and time. If the latter,
I am truly sorry. Let me explain, everything...
End
*****
on the 550th anniversary of the Battle of the Chasm of Genth, Tarn
Origin City.
Order of Service (excerpt)
Welcome
1st prayer – ‘The consolations of sacrifice’
All rise
Hymn 346 – ‘History and me’
Congregation will be seated.
We will be joined by the congregation on Capp for a communal tour of
the terrain around the chasm, facilitated by Archbishop Mallin IV.
Having risen up the East face of Tarn Mount the combined congregation
will meet below Wan peak, where the five million Tarnonian and Gralian
casualties will be remembered. Would all members of the congregation
wishing to be involved please ensure that the image-association pill
attached to this programme is taken during Archbishop Mallin’s
introduction.
End
THE END
© 2019 Philip Berry
Bio: Philip Berry lives in London. His SF has appeared in The
Corona Book of SF, Metaphorosis, Nebula Rift, Daily Science Fiction and
Ellipsiszine among others. In 2017 he published a collection of 30
stories called Bonewhite Light..
Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum
Return to Aphelion's Index page.
|
