Utopia falling, p.9
Utopia Falling, page 9
“Lions and tigers and bears… electrons and photons and quarks, oh my.”
Emosh shifted her head sideways, “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t understand.”
“A reference from long before your time Miss Emosh.” He folded his hands in his lap and looked up at his Damus, who had stopped pacing. He continued, “Are you starting from the point of divergence I specified? At the instant the asteroid struck Earth—the Great Destruction—a second Earth inexplicably became unmoored from its dimensional tether as the Many-Worlds Interpretation of the universe postulates is possible. This second Earth popped into existence before the asteroid-induced devastation sped across the planet. This other pristine version of Earth burst into existence, with some differences… minus the people and the footprint of destruction left to us… and given this second Earth is real, sharing information across separate dimensions should not exist, even in the Many-Worlds scenario. But it does.”
“That’s the working model I’ve been using, sir. It what allows for both Earths and the ability of Shifters to move between them.”
The Devil’s Blacksmith’s encouraging tone helped Emosh settle down, but her hurried vocalizations proved a stubborn affectation to master in the moment. “As best I can figure, the Earth, the sun, and our entire solar system rises and falls against the galactic plane—you know, the Milky Way—while circling around the galaxy at more than a half-a-million miles an hour. And if you consider the work of scientists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who established the velocity of the Milky Way, when you add it all together, Earth is racing through space at almost two million miles an hour.”
“You are doing fine. Continue.”
“Again, based on my research from the ancient books and journals in your library, sometimes Earth is above the galactic plane. Millions of years later, it’s below it. Earth moves up and down, up and down as the millennia roll on, and measured over light-years, over eons of time, it follows that our planet has a wave pattern just like a photon’s wave frequency, only much bigger. Oddly enough, Earth behaves like a photon particle of light moving through space. Earth has a wave pattern, a frequency, and a quantifiable amplitude. Just on a cosmic scale.”
He offered her a hint of excitement in his reply. “Rare books indeed, Miss Emosh. You, and all my previous Damus’ possess the rare ability to experience the Probability Wavefunctions of Earth’s two dimensions in the Void as one might experience the same for an individual such as Reyne Brenton. Until now, its genesis has eluded us. This is brilliant work; the basis of our planet’s, and Tartica’s, individual Probability Wavefunctions that will prove crucial to even greater accuracy in your future calculations.”
Her face lit up in the gloom of the dark room. “I am so proud to be a part of this, sir. Two versions of Earth, rising and falling in their respective galactic planes at the same rate, traveling at the same speed, until our two planetary wavelengths, in sync from different dimensions, line up at a single point in space and time where these two dimensions will converge.”
The Devil’s Blacksmith smiled. She’d never seen such a full smile from him before. Although, she thought something malevolent hid behind it.
“I’m committed one hundred percent. You know that, sir. It’s just… none of this should be happening. The splitting of spacetime as though each version of Earth is a single photon in an oversized Double Slit Experiment is an impossible state of being. Two Earths in two separate dimensions, behaving like quantum particles. Physics doesn’t allow for it. I deal in hard facts, numbers, equations… what is real. This is abracadabra stuff on a planetary level, and it’s hard for me to accept… scientifically. But I know this, only one of these two states of reality can be true, either we exist in a multiverse where the laws of physics have broken down or that asteroid—fifteen hundred years ago—slammed into Earth and opened a door to a mystical realm. It can only be one or the other.”
“What is real Miss Emosh?” He spread his arms open in a sweeping gesture. “The ‘why’ of it does not lead us out of darkness. The ‘how’ of it does not deliver us a better future. The supernatural and physics need not be mutually exclusive. The very existence of the Void should open your mind to accept there is more to the universe than human thought is capable of understanding. We must simply play the cards we have been dealt.”
Shaking her head in disbelief, Synja Emosh confessed, “I just don’t know anymore if I’m dealing with science or magic.”
“It matters not, Miss Emosh.”
Forbidden Is Just a Word
Teth: 27th day of the Salmon Moon
Derr
The morning of the Feast of Teth rolled on two miles outside the city named for the goddess the fete so honored. Chancellor Tomelai finished the breakfast he shared with his wife, First Lady Kaythlin. The pair were running late, having stolen time from the schedule for a passionate session of shared intimacy. An appropriate start to a day that would shower Tomelai in adulation—if all went according to plan.
Outside the sovereign’s pavilion, servants all about camp packed up the travel belongings of their respective patrons.
Adelle’s entourage prepared to move out.
The support staff would follow later.
Chancellor Tomelai and First Lady Kaythlin were the last to appear at their appointed station. The Tomelai’s delay resulted in getting started later than expected. It irked Derr, but as it was Tomelai’s doing, Derr held back from voicing his frustration. He would do it in private when he had the Chancellor alone.
The sun was fully over the horizon on its path across the sky. Chancellor Tomelai looked across to his glowing wife. The two locked gazes and smiled back at each other. In his overactive sex drive, he had found the perfect mate. Other aspects of life between them weren’t perfect. When it came to sex, however, they were great together. It helped make everything else between them work.
Derr was watching. He’d seen the look between them many times before. He understood the cause of their tardiness. Irked at the delay, yet it didn’t stop the smirk he gave his Chancellor as the pair approached. Tomelai gave a discreet nod to Derr, as if to confirm the reason for their late arrival. The Tomelais’ early morning dalliance kept over one hundred people waiting.
Atop his horse, Tomelai sidled up alongside Derr, telling the Captain for no one else to hear, “If a Chancellor can’t spend a morning with his lovely and naked First Lady, what good is it being Chancellor?”
A stoic face from Derr followed in reply.
The procession moved at a steady pace, and it wasn’t long before they could see the city of Teth before them. Up and over the last small rise along the rolling green Hills of Rathia, they approached the city-state of Teth. From a mile away, the city remained partially hidden behind the stunning magnificence of The Stand.
The KCG were the first to catch sight of The Stand from their position at the front of the procession. Unique in the known world, The Stand, a narrow strip of forest, was more spectacular and more formidable than any man-made creation. The Captain of the KCG looked up at the two-hundred-foot-tall giant sequoias standing in a tight line as if they were guards in a well-drilled unit. Immovable against any force man or nature could throw at it, the conifers grew so close together they looked like huge fence posts put there by forces only gods could muster.
No matter how many times a traveler came upon the site, a sense of awe and deep respect for nature swelled in every heart. Those in the ruling class in the Kingdom of Adelle, lucky enough to be part of the entourage, were no different.
The Stand grew larger and more commanding the closer one approached the colossus. Imperceptible from a distance, The Stand granted passage through one large break in the otherwise impenetrable barrier, simply known as The Gate. The Gate, an opening in the seemingly never-ending line of the giant trees, granted entry into a tunnel-like passageway through the dense yet narrow grove that made up The Stand.
The Captain of the KCG scanned the overwhelming scene before him. The extensive line of trees went off for several miles on either side of The Gate. To his left, The Stand ended when it reached the Bay of Synn. The site impressed even Captain Druin Derr, and Derr wasn’t a man easily impressed by anything. It wasn’t his first visit to the city nor the first time he had seen The Stand, but it didn’t diminish the awe he felt for the impressive natural formation. He admired the protection it provided for all who stood behind it, even though the Covenant took war off the table in all the years of the Third Age. It was just how Derr’s mind worked.
“It’s a magnificent sight, isn’t it?” Derr said in what sounded more like an observation than a question.
Tomelai looked less impressed. His face gave nothing away. Being Chancellor, Tomelai mastered the art of giving nothing away. Unless, of course, he wanted to. “Yes, it is, Drew. It surely is,” Tomelai replied with just enough well-practiced warmth in his tone to let Derr know everything was proceeding to his satisfaction.
Druin Derr had ridden side by side with the Chancellor and First Lady since meeting up. He barely spoke to either of them. It wasn’t unusual. Derr always had a lot to think about, and it afforded Tomelai to attend to the First Lady. Derr didn’t feel slighted at the silence.
Teth had no real need for such a defense. There hadn’t been war in the history of the Third Age. Most weapons from the Second Age—those they knew of—were banned, as were standing armies. Accounting for all the false posturing of friendship and professed cooperation between nations as demanded by the Covenant, Teth was de facto, neutral ground.
Alongside Tomelai at the head of the procession, upon glimpsing The Stand, Derr thought, I can almost believe all the Temple of Life’s bullshit looking at this.
Derr had seen too much killing, too much blood, too much of what humanity could do to each other to believe in a benevolent and loving god. He had done a great deal of the killing himself. He had done it all in defiance of the Covenant, which precluded the taking of life for any reason. Killing or even causing harm to another was absolutely forbidden given the demands of humanity’s repopulation.
Meaningless to Derr.
Maybe wars weren’t hanging over his Chancellor’s head, but threats, real or imagined, to Tomelai’s life needed to be eliminated. The Covenant’s dictates precluding the killing of another were universal and absolute and that should have been enough to protect his Chancellor—but that was just on paper. Derr wasn’t the only one to disregard its demands. Other forces were as proficient as Derr in ways forbidden by the Covenant.
To Derr’s way of thinking, “forbidden” was just a word—noise one could make. A modulating wave passing through air held no inherent power over Derr. With no actual physical energy, speech was weak. Words themselves can’t kill with the force of the sound they make, and, therefore, words couldn’t stop Derr. Power was in the deeds of the man and women who acted. Letters written on paper couldn’t exert any physical restrictions on him, either. The word, any word, spoken or written, held no power over him. Only when either came from Chancellor Tomelai did words matter.
The people of Tartica surrendered to words by their own choice, by their own actions, by their own acquiescence. Derr didn’t acquiesce to anyone or anything. Nothing stopped Captain Derr from protecting Chancellor Tomelai. Ancient signatures, scribbles from long-dead people on a dried-up old piece of paper never entered the equation as Derr put into practice his one and only mission: to protect his Chancellor at all costs. Chancellor Tomelai, the man he called Rotti, was his only real friend and he’d do anything to safeguard him.
Looking up as he approached The Gate, Derr took a map out from under his formal dress coat. The map in his hands and the scene before him showed trees lined up so closely together barely a man could slip between them. Trunks of thirty feet or more in diameter, tightly positioned together, stood not only side by side but one behind the other. The Stand was at least fifty massive trees deep, spanning a width of almost half a mile all along its entire length.
Most troubling for the Captain came after passing through The Gate. It was not a straight path through The Stand. The map showed the passage made two sharp turns, like the path winding up a steep mountain. Derr had studied the map many times to prepare for Tomelai’s visit to Teth, and with one last review, he searched for anything he might have missed, hoping to quell his concerns for the dangers lurking in the darkness of the sunless passage. His search found nothing.
I don’t like this. He rolled up the map and placed it back under his coat. He didn’t like what The Stand offered to his side of the equation.
Teth guards stood at the entrance of The Gate while people from all around lined up to pass through. Derr watched, scanning the rabble for any sign of anything out of the ordinary. Others of the KCG were doing the same. Derr nodded to the Teth guards to suggest Tomelai’s procession was ready to begin their trek through The Gate into The Stand. Derr intently observed the Teth guards moved everyone away to permit the Chancellor from the Kingdom of Adelle with his KCG protectors to pass.
“Rotti, this is the part I like least,” Derr offered while gripping tightly on the reins of his mount. “May I suggest we stay close together?” He paused. “As we agreed and as we planned.” Derr had experienced his Chancellor’s disregard for his security measures too many times before.
“Drew, you worry too much, but you have been right before. Too many times.”
“As we planned, Muroy, Richelle, and Jerith will ride in front of you with another three KCG directly in front of them and another three behind you for the entire trip through The Stand,” Derr said. Then added, “I’ll be on your left and Dillip on your right.”
“My safety is in your hands, Drew. Let us keep moving with all the pageantry the situation will allow us.” Tomelai wanted to ensure Derr’s preparation for his safety didn’t interfere with appearances. For Chancellor Tomelai, appearances were more important than anything. Appearances led to perceptions, and perception seeded reality. Tomelai couldn’t afford to give the appearance of anything less than commanding or regal.
As per Derr’s plan, Tomelai would move to the front just before they exited The Gate on Teth’s side of The Stand. Kaythlin and the rest of the entourage would follow.
“How The Stand came to be, a mystery of the ages,” Tomelai said as he pulled up alongside Derr, “but the Temple lords have weaved their stories to humble the faithful about the power of their god, or is it gods? I should know it by now. The Book of Teth or the Temple of Life scripture say something about how this came to be. Something about how it was created is used to support their deeply rooted belief in Mother Earth, the great unifying power of nature.”
Derr knew his friend Rotti didn’t believe all of what the Temple was selling, but he was respectful of The Stand, however it got there. “You know, each tree is at least thirty feet thick. Close enough to each other that a squirrel’s ass might struggle to squeeze through. And row after row of the giant trees would hold off even the most well-trained forces. It’s quite remarkable. Can’t see how Mother Earth came up with that military calculation, since nobody is supposed to be killing anybody else.”
Derr was even a little jealous. How easy it might be to defend Adelle behind an impenetrable wall. Derr wasn’t so lucky. His ability to protect his Chancellor would have to rely on the skill of his guards and Adelle’s well-trained police force under General Kiple’s command. Kiple, now there’s an asshole if ever there was one, Derr considered.
The thought of Kiple brought Druin back to reality. “As impressive as The Stand might be, once inside the city, The Stand will not keep an archer off a stray balcony or an assassin from a shadow.”
“You will not let that happen, Drew. Besides, what reason would someone ever want to assassinate a beloved Head of State such as me?” Tomelai said confidently. Although, he knew there were a thousand reasons and a lengthy list of people who would like to see him dead.
Derr saw risk everywhere. In his mind, everyone was a threat. He didn’t give a shit whether the KCG considered them a friend of Adelle or not. To Druin Derr, everyone, at all times, presented a potential threat. It was the single-minded approach that made him so valuable to his friend, Rotti.
The Feast of Teth, what better irony than for some asshole to kill a sovereign in celebration?
Derr was determined not to let his Chancellor die today.
Still, something didn’t feel right. In all his years at Tomelai’s side, Teth had never been so quiet. Every report claimed nothing of note was happening inside the city. Even the pimps weren’t pressing their girls or guys for ever more coin, as they did on any other day. Absent were the beatings pushing them into service, regardless of whether buyers were buying, demanding more in return than any purveyor of the Gift of Flesh could ever deliver. This level of quiet inside Teth is unnatural.
Teth, a holy city in name, but like any other place where large numbers of people gathered, was also a cesspool of corruption.
With the Feast of Teth upon them, more pikers were in the city to be taken advantage of by the thieves and pickpockets. The runners for the wards’ drug business, constantly at each other over ever-expanding locations from which to sell the addictive drug called dust, appeared to be at peace. An impossibility as the wards were always at odds over clientele or vying for more product by any means possible. A lucrative business to be certain, dealing dust was a most deadly occupation as well. Like so much of the illegal activity in and around Teth, the Thuggery had its hands all over the dust trade. It wasn’t what they called themselves, not at first anyway. But everyone else did. Over time, as decades passed, the name just settled in. Factions within the Thuggery were often at war over the inveterate drug business. Never in all the years Derr monitored Teth had the factions of the Thuggery been this utterly silent, if the reports being delivered to Derr were to be believed.
