imagine. They had machines that could take them to the moon, and their sights were set even…”
“Wait... wait…” blurted Nicholas, pointing into the courtyard. “The ancients; our ancients, had machines that could fly… like that?”
“And others so big that they would stretch from the mountains towards the sea.”
Nicholas had begun to laugh in a giggling sort of way. “To be true Reigel I never know if what you tell me is fact or fiction?”
Reigel’s patience was beginning to wear thin, but he persevered. “At night you would have seen some of these craft, and thought of it as a star, but it was made; well begun, with your ancestors labour.” He stopped for a moment as if in thought. “...Men lived, and still live on or above the planets. Seven other planets like this and even amongst a ring of floating rocks that circle far out from the Sun. Earth has taken its presence throughout your solar system and beyond.”
Nicholas tried to regain his composure. “It seems each moment with you, my word is turned over. So I have lived in ignorance of these things throughout my life.”
“Neither you, nor the vast majority of your fellow citizens has known what is happening within your sight, but this is not your fault; it was decided by others that you must earn a place once again. It is their decree that your planet develops in its own time, and when it has reached a maturity of civilization, and then it can retake its place on the council.”
“Earn its place: what did my ancestors do to deserve such conditions; or by the tone of your words, such punishment?”
“There were no punishments. The reality was that those in power at the time were manipulated. The globe was engulfed in war; hardly a place on the face of the planet was a safe haven. Crops failed, forests withered, seas became poisoned; both man and beast starved. Disease and Plague laid waste to many who survived the conflict. It was at that point Earth was place in quarantine.”
Reigel looked at Nicholas, he was staring back at him silently.
“The one saving grace: if there was one, was that with the speed the war had run its course; the colonies, even those aboard the orbiting space station were spared of involvement. They like the others could only stand and watch as civilization; as they knew it, evaporate before their eyes.” Reigel took a cup from a water fountain. He offered it to Nicholas, but the youth didn’t take it.
“If these were our own kin, why did they not help?”
“It is easy to ask now, but it was not as simple a thing to do, and mainly because they couldn’t. Many of the craft used to journey to and from different colonies were pressed into battle, and destroyed. Only the few off the planet at the time survived, and these were within a brief time chronically short of fuel; replacement parts, or the skills needed to rebuild and replace them. It soon became obvious that although the colonies were organized to govern themselves they relied greatly on the resources of the main planet. Now that was gone and all had to start from the beginning.” Reigel stopped. “Are you sure you don’t need a drink… water I mean?”
Nicholas shook his head.
Reigel began again. “From that time those on this planet lived in darkness. Order and civilization as it had been known was gone, and with it all hope. The lands were ravaged by years of perpetual winter, by disease, by radiation. The eventual return was to seasons more extreme than ever known before. Life: what life was left was utterly changed. Uncountable species of plant and animal disappeared; others were altered beyond recognition. The Veldt were once men like you; even now their lands breathe a poison that cannot be seen, yet stunts and mutates them. As time passed roaming mobs of scavengers became organized into a feudal system… of sorts.”
“All this and still these... Colonies offered no help?”
Reigel had not this moment considered why they hadn’t, and he couldn’t truly answer. “No, there were reasons: I don’t know them, but it was probably partly because they were afraid it would bring back disease to their own colonies, and by the time they could have helped, they had in their isolation developed different philosophies and beliefs that continue to this day. Some colonies want a free and open Earth, others a segregated and split one, and Mars in particular wants domination. With all these differing views nobody could see any as the way to go. I suppose all that shows is that human kind, or its offshoots have not learnt any lessons. Like all contentious decisions the council of planets: as the grouping of representatives became known made a compromise decision to continue the quarantine of Earth. The culture was to remain alone until a developing civilization was able to make its own choice. That edict has already stood for over three hundred years.”
“Then what has changed? Why now do craft from these colonies come to kill men on earth?”
“Nothing has changed, and they shouldn’t; but as I have said each developed their own philosophy. Some led down very different paths. Mars and its ruler Tandore, wants to keep Earth in quarantine while his underlings create it for his own purpose.”
Nicholas felt incensed. “You are telling me that my people are subjugated at the whim of somebody who does not even live on our planet?”
“If you want to think of it that way then yes, but there’s more to it than just a whim.”
“Not from where I stand.”
“No.” Reigel said in a conciliatory tone. “What you should know is that it was people from where I come from; and our foe that intervened in your ancestor’s war. We did not start it, but we assisted those who each of us saw as the right side.”
“For what purpose?”
Again Reigel was without a valid answer. “Sometimes there is no reason why we expect others to live as we do, but we do. The belief was that ours is the superior way, and you would benefit by follow our ways.”
“Even if you had to destroy us before we did?”
“It is the history of humanity. We preach tolerance and diversity yet act intolerantly of others beliefs. We claim freedom and insist others conform.” Reigel sighed. “I make no excuses for what has happened, but happen it has, and now you have the chance to right that wrong.”
Nicholas looked down at the Drakken. “A chance to right; that kind of wrong?”
“There is so much more to tell, than we have time.”
“Just hours now,” sighed Nicholas dejectedly.
“No.” Added Reigel quickly, “That’s not what I suggested. I don’t refer to tomorrow at dawn. I mean in total; time in lifetime.”
“Either way, my hope, and own time is almost gone.”
Reigel stared at the youth, He could just ask him for the stones: in his morose state there was every chance the he would just hand them over and he could leave him to his fate. But that seemed so pointless after all the time he had invested. “Nicholas,” he said hesitantly. There are a couple of items you have…”
Nicholas looked at him expecting more.
“When I told you to return to your home I said to collect two things. Your mother’s ring, and your knife, you have them?”
“Yes… well actually; no.”
“No.”
“The ring: I gave it to... a girl.” Nicholas felt a surge of grief at the thought of Harriet. “For her to take to the grave as my keepsake.”
“You did what?” Reigel stared at him in disbelief.
“She… she saved my life at the cost of her own… I would have given all that I could ever possess for you to have been there at that moment,” he said sadly. “If only you could have prevented her death as you did mine?”
Reigel shook his head. “That ring was more valuable than you know.”
“I know what it was, Mathew told me, but its value to me was as my only possession of the woman I knew as my mother, and I passed it to one who I would have asked to be the mother of my children.”
“The reality is that it was not your mothers.”
“I don’t know where it came from, and honestly neither do I care. I assumed it had been passed down through my family, and by that reason it was
mine to give away.” Nicholas looked sadly at Reigel. “There is little to think about, and I do not regret that the ring lies beneath the ground; hidden forever. It is my gift to her for a greater courage than I have shown.” He felt more hurt at the memory of Harriet than he believed was possible.
Reigel sighed. “Where and when did you give it to her?”
“Less than a day before I arrived in the City; at our safe house in Lakesend. Where they… took her from there I do not know.”
Reigel nodded; he didn’t want to say anything could sound like he was thinking of exhuming the girl. “If it is gone then so be it; then your knife? And please don’t tell me you have given that away too?”
“No. I have that here.” Nicholas reached into his shirt. “It’s gone.”
Reigel stood irritably. “Nicholas, you treat items that I asked you for in a careless way.”
“These last days what was once precious to me is no longer… I remember… in the paneling.”
Reigel glanced towards the doorway. “Show me.”
The room was still a mess, with upturned furniture and bloodstains still clearly visible. “There,” said Nicholas pointing where the dagger was still stuck in the timber.
Reigel gripped the hilt, and moved it slightly to loosen it. He pulled the blade from the panel. “This is the knife you brought from your home?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
Nicholas was surprised. “Of course. I would know it anywhere.”
“Then Tandore still