Chapter Thirteen
‘The Truth’
Human?
The Minister stared at me as if gauging my reaction to his revelation. The word meant nothing to me; I’d never heard of a ‘human’. I wondered if these humans lived in some undisclosed region within the sphere. I wasn’t widely travelled, so I surmised it was entirely plausible for an entire civilisation to exist beyond the borders of my homeland without my knowledge. I needed to say something.
“I’m sorry sir, forgive my ignorance, but I don’t know what a ‘human’ is.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” responded Drake. “Perhaps it would be best if I started from the beginning.”
I perched on the edge of the wooden stool in anticipation of Drake’s tale when Gorn’s voice barked from across the room. “You’re wasting time Drake. Get the code... before it’s too late.” The annoyance and desperation in the Trojan Keeper’s intonation was clear.
The Minister refused to rise to Gorn’s aggressive posturing. “In due course, Mr Gorn.”
“The fate of both our worlds hangs in the balance.”
“I’m fully aware of the situation, thank you.”
This brief confrontation was followed by a tense silence; a battle of wills. It was Gorn who conceded. “Just get it done.”
Drake paced up and down the messy Lab. I waited patiently.
“The war, Minister,” urged Flon. “I think that would be a fine place to start.”
I may not have recognised the word human, but the word war was universal.
“War?” I asked.
Drake glared at Flon. “Thank you, Doctor Flon. I can handle this.”
“Of course. Yes. Carry on. Sorry sir.”
The Minister took a deep breath then began his tale. “My home is a... complicated place, with many cultures living side by side, each with their own laws and beliefs. Over seventy cycles ago these differences plunged my world into a terrible war that threatened to tear it apart. During the conflict many lives were lost, resources were drained, and the population as a whole suffered. Finding new technologies and methods of defence became a priority. World Governments set about developing new weapons, computer systems, and methods to infiltrate other countries.”
“Countries?” Another new word I failed to grasp.
It was Flon who answered. “Places where humans live. Like our outer communities only much, much larger.” If Drake was displeased by Flon’s interruption, he didn’t show it.
“During the course of the battle technology in my world took massive leaps forward. These new inventions, however, required masses of power to maintain them. A group of scientists were assigned the task of finding new power supplies. After months of searching they believed they’d finally found an almost limitless power source that would guarantee us victory.”
“That isn’t all they found,” interjected Gorn, bitterly.
“No, it wasn’t.” The Minister sounded almost ashamed.
I was finding the saga fascinating. It was incredible to learn of a new race with a history that was entwined with our own. It filled me with a childlike excitement and fuelled my imagination.
“Where is your world, sir?”
“A long way away from here... and yet you could say, extremely close.”
That sounded more like a riddle than an answer. “And what’s it called?”
“Earth.”
The unfamiliar words were piling up. “Will you tell me about it?” I implored.
Gorn slammed a fist on the worktop. “This isn’t a bedtime story, boy.”
“Mr Gorn!” roared Drake, silencing the Trojan Keeper. The resentment in Gorn’s eyes was fierce, but the Minister wasn’t going to back down. After a moment, Gorn averted his gaze.
“I apologise for Mr Gorn’s outburst. Now where was I?”
“Earth,” I reminded him.
“Ah Yes. The majority of my world is covered with vast areas of water known as oceans. Due to their sheer depth, many of these oceans have gone unexplored. In one of our deepest oceans, a craft know as a submarine, was seriously damaged in an attack. It plummeted to the ocean floor; all hands aboard were sadly lost. They did however, manage to transmit a short data stream back to the surface. The readings indicated a large fissure, a sort of hole on the ocean bed. Our interest was peaked. We sent a team to investigate further and they discovered faint power readings, like nothing we’d seen before.”
I was captivated. “What was causing them?”
“We didn’t know; the fissure was too immense. The only way to find out what was causing the readings was to send a team into the hole. A group of scientists, accompanied by a military task force, were sent to explore this newly discovered crevice; their mission, to find and evaluate the potential use of this new power supply.”
“Incredible.”
“It took them months, enormous resources and, regrettably several lives. But eventually they reached the end of their journey.”
“And what did they find?”
“A new domain buried deep within the surface of our world. New resources, new energy supplies….”
Gorn butted in. “None of which belonged to them.”
“This is our world as much as it is yours Mr Gorn.” The constant backchat from the Trojan Keeper was beginning to take its toll on Drake.
“You found Valiros?”
“Yes.”
Gorn was agitated. “You should have stayed where you were. All of this is only happening because of what you did.”
“Because of what we did? The Trojans were not our making, Mr Gorn.”
“Maybe not by your design, but certainly by your actions.”
“There’s sufficient blame for both sides.”
“Perhaps you should continue your story, Minister,” recommended Flon with a chipper smile on his face. Drake nodded.
“The war was not going well, and surrender was becoming a very real possibility. We needed an edge, an advantage; your world provided it.”
“So they invaded,” bit Gorn.
“Your people were more than happy to make the deal Mr Gorn.” Drake had gone from aggravated to defensive.
I was in the middle of an argument that had been transpiring for a very long time. I suspected that Minister Drake and Mr Gorn would never see eye to eye.
Drake opened the file to the first page and slid the document towards me.
The words on the page were written in a language I didn’t recognise. There were a collection of pictures and diagrams accompanying the alien words. One particular picture caught my eye. It was two circles, one significantly larger than the other, with the smaller circle situated in the centre.
He pointed at the smaller circle. “This is Valiros.”
“And the larger circle?”
“Earth.”
“You’re outside the sphere.”
“In the centre of my world is a large ball of liquid that we call the outer core, in the centre of that is a small metal sphere, the inner core. We always believed it to be solid, a composition of an iron-nickel alloy. What you call Valiros, we call the centre of the Earth.”
Flon’s excitement was growing and he was unable to restrain his enthusiasm any further. With an animation that only the chaotic doctor could pull off, he took over the presentation.
“The location of this complex was not chosen haphazardly. The fissure was nearly four thousand miles deep and led the human research team here, to Dorow. They entered Valiros through the Gateway Cavern.”
Drake turned the page on the file, and I was faced with more foreign words and a picture, this time of one of the greatest Valirons who ever lived, Tre Broter Penn; creator of the first light source.
“When we arrived here your people were living in complete darkness. True you had adapted to the environment developing certain abilities, but this state of never-ending night had seriously hindered your development.”
“On a technological level,” added Fl
on.
“And socially,” said Drake
Gorn huffed. The Minister ignored him. “As a race you were aggressive; understandably so, attempting to survive in a hostile world.”
“We only have your people’s word for that.” Gorn’s bitterness was beginning to annoy me.
“Broter Penn was the first Valiron we made contact with. You must understand you had no government, no head of state. As a result he became our primary contact. With the use of human translators, we managed to establish a trade agreement. We would help your people create methods to light your world, teach you building techniques, and in return you would allow us full access to excavate the resources of Valiros.”
My entire history was unravelling. “So it wasn’t Tre Broter Penn who created the first light source. You did.”
“We gave your people the tools and knowledge, but it was your own ingenuity that created your civilisation. From what I’ve been told, it was astonishing. Your world developed at such a remarkable rate, far quicker than we could have ever imagined. Within seven cycles not only had you constructed massive lights that scaled the entire surface of the sphere, but you’d also created a mighty city, villages, an economic system, a political network. Your technology began to surpass that of our own.”
“You instigated ‘The Change’.”
“We did.”
“So why the secrecy? Why were we never told about any of this?”
“Fear,” said Gorn.
“Mr Gorn’s description is crude but accurate. Knowledge of a civilisation living above you; a race in the grip of war would incite panic. Your government made the decision to cover up our intervention.”
I understood the reasoning, but I doubted that a lie, even one spoken with the best of intentions, could be a good thing.
“What does this have to do with what’s happening now?”
“Unfortunately, as with most developing civilisations, you also developed mistrust. Many of your government officials, like Mr Gorn, saw us as invaders, sent here to plunder your world.”
“And did you?” I couldn’t deny that Mr Gorn’s argument may have held some merit.
“Answer the boy,” snarled Gorn. He appeared pleased with my question.
“We maintained our end of the deal… but yes, many of my people were blinded by what your world offered. Several cycles after the war was over, the High Darlon Council asked us to vacate Valiros, but my leaders refused to leave. We’d grown dependent on your world. After nearly a cycle, all diplomatic relations between our peoples had collapsed. Your government felt they had no choice but to strike back with force. They constructed an army of weapons, a deadly armada that would be capable of wiping out my entire culture.”
The pieces started falling into place. “They built the Trojans.”
“The irony is that we gave your people the knowledge to build the very weapons that were going to destroy us. Earth had barely recovered from its own war; we were in no state to fight another. We conceded. We would stop mining the resources of Valiros, and the High Darlon Council would call off the attack. It was agreed that a small delegation of humans, like myself, would remain in Valiros as liaisons between our worlds.”
“But my government still didn’t trust you.”
“Distrust is hard to shake. The High Darlon Council chose to leave the devices on permanent guard, situated at various points throughout Valiros. Six times, every day, they would activate and scan for new orders. If none were given then they would power down.”
“So what’s changed? Why, sixty cycles later, are the Trojan Devices coming here, to Dorow?”
“Because they’ve received orders. Dorow is the location of the fissure that will lead them to my world.”
“They’re preparing to attack?” The idea that the High Darlon Council had declared war on another world was beyond insane. “Why would we do that?” I directed my question to Gorn.
“We have nothing to do with it,” he retorted.
“Your government claims to have no knowledge of sending the order.”
“So what does that mean?”
Flon stepped forward, the smile finally wiped from his face. “It means someone else transmitted the order to attack."
“And you don’t know who it was?”
“We don’t,” Flon answered. “Only high government officials, a few scientists, and certain high ranking military personnel can transmit the order. The three of us in this room happen to fall into that rather elite group.”
“But why? What would this person achieve by destroying Earth?”
“Earth may not be their focal target,” grumbled Gorn. “The Trojan Keepers believe there is a greater purpose to this plan. We just don’t know what it is.”
“And this all has something to do with me?”
Drake and Gorn exchanged a glance.
“Mr Gorn, why don’t you tell Mr Parthy why he’s here.”
“Only one person has the code to power down the Trojan Devices,” he said in a low, menacing tone. “The Head of the Trojan Keepers.”
“So why hasn’t he done it?” I asked.
“Because he’s dead. The Head of the Trojan Keepers was Talsen Trent. Your grandfather.”