Post by obiwanbeeohbee on Nov 7, 2010 16:58:28 GMT 1
Sorry that I didn't get to post anything this past week, but my job has me traveling quite a bit and I didn't have reliable internet at the hotel where I was staying.
This post is the chapter where I introduce Calf Stealer and two new characters, one from Terra Nova and one from Earth. It is from Calf Stealer's perspective that we learn much of what we find out about the feline's rebellion against the creators and their alliance with the Terra Novan natives, or Zunnuki. But, this chapter is mostly an exchange between General Gupta from Earth, and Azir Buzami, the governor of the district that contains the one of the Zunnuki cities. We also learn a little about the Zunnuki people and get a hint at where they may have come from originally.
Later, I'll post the next
Strangely enough, this chapter wrote itself. The dialog seemed to flow very easily and I have had to re-edit it very little. Enjoy!
16-April-2210
Azir Buzami picked up the tankard of beer from his desk and swallowed what was left. He then turned it upside down as if to prove to himself that it was empty, frowned and put it back down. He took a deep breath and exhaled. Up to this point, he had been able to hide his ennui quite well, but it was hours past time for him to leave for the day and he really was not keen on spending one more minute going back over the fourteen hundred and sixty some odd pages of the treaty.
The treaty, under its final review before coming to a vote in the Zunnuki senate, was to define diplomatic relations and promote military cooperation between the Zunnuki, the felines and the visitors from Mu’a Asari, The Water World, that circled Uttu; the yellow star, that shone brightly in the direction of the constellation known as the Throne of the Queen.
The irony of the name, Terra Nova, that the original invading Earth men had given Zunnuki, was not lost on Buzami, or the rest of his people. According to legend, the Zunnuki originally came from Mu’a Asari, or as it was called in the most ancient texts found on Zunnuki, Ki. The name Zunnuki was actually derived from the phrase Su’u’nu Ki, which meant Second World, or New World in that most ancient dialect. The texts, which spawned the only existing Zunnuki religion, told fantastic stories of how god-men came here in incredible flying machines to escape the Great War that was raging among the planets of the Uttu system. A war that was fought with weapons that could disintegrate whole planets with “sounds that could be felt, but not heard” or burn them to a cinder with “a heat that was greater than a thousand suns”.
The texts told of three factions, two that were human and one that was a race of upright-walking serpents, who fought over and held possession of most of the planets in the system at various times. The race that spawned the two human factions came originally from the fifth planet and the serpents came from the third, but there were human and serpent presences on all of the habitable planets and moons in the system. The war resulted in the complete destruction of the fifth planet and the ripping away of the atmosphere and oceans of the fourth, leaving it uninhabitable. Fearful groups of humans and serpents left the system before the destruction of the fifth planet, and were said to have settled on planets in every system with an orange or yellow sun for at least fifty light years in all directions from Uttu.
The legends promised the return of these god-men, to Zunnuki to collect everyone and take them back to resettle the third planet in the system and the only one left that was habitable. Those who still adhered to the Zunnuki religion awaited the call to return to Ki. When Zunnuki was informed where the Armstrong battle group came from, the faithful expected that call to come from them, but they waited in vain. Almost nobody else on the planet made the connection.
Buzami looked across the table at the Combined Earth Forces general and the feline colonel that were proof-reading the treaty along with him. Both looked back with the similar amounts of exhaustion clouding their visages. Buzami decided to take the gambit and suggest breaking for the day.
“If I have to look at this document a minute longer, General Gupta, my eyes will cross,” he said, and then glanced toward the feline, hoping for some sign of agreement.
“I must agree with Governor Buzami, General,” the feline added, “We’ve been at this for fourteen straight hours and I believe that unless we break from it for a while, we will become careless. I am not sure that I could say I haven’t missed an important detail or two already.”
Gupta looked at the other two. He was just as tired as they were, but they were under a deadline to finish examining the treaty and it was up to him to ensure that the deadline was met. Fourteen other trios, all made up of one Zunnuki, one representative from Earth and one feline each, were also going over the document. The teams had been given seven days to review the treaty and report to the Zunnuki senate. The groups were not to communicate with each other during that time and progress reports to their respective governments were prohibited. At the end of seven days the trios would contact the senate and inform them of any difficulties that any of the members had with the treaty and those would be discussed on the floor of the senate with representatives of the felines and Earth government present.
“We only have one day left,” Gupta stated matter-of-factly. Buzami and the feline, Colonel Calf-Stealer, looked at each other as if they knew what was coming next.
“General,” Buzami replied, almost reflexively, “We haven’t run into any real difficulties with the major principles of the document and I have a feeling that none of the other groups have gotten as far as we have. I believe that the senate will have to reconvene the triads after the briefings for at least another three days.”
Gupta looked at Calf Stealer. “Do you concur, Colonel,” he asked. Calf Stealer nodded in agreement.
“Well, gentlemen,” Gupta said, “I could certainly use some dinner and a rest myself. Governor? Colonel? Should we find the nearest tavern?”
The Zunnuki and the feline smiled and grabbed their jackets. They followed the terran general out of Buzami’s office and down the hallway to the front entrance of the district seat. They had not been on the surface of Terra Nova for six days and Calf Stealer was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. It was well after dinner time so the group decided that they should leave the city center and find a place to relax and have dinner closer to their quarters. They walked the half kilometer to the central train station to make the ride to the residential section of the city. It usually took thirty minutes to make the trip during business hours, but this late in the evening, the trip should be much shorter. Once they got to their train stop, there would be a host of dining and drinking establishments within walking distance of their final destination, Buzami’s apartment complex.
Once they were off the train, the trio took the nearest stairway up two levels to the station’s central dining area, and found a sidewalk table in front Buzami’s favorite tavern. All three ordered beers and Gupta asked for a menu. He needed no help reading it. He had learned Zunnuki quickly. Gupta was a linguist who fluently spoke every major language used on Earth at the current time. He was also an expert in primitive Earth cultures and ancient languages. He was very familiar with Sumerian and Sanskrit. The familiarity with Sumerian was the big reason that he was chosen as one of the Earth representatives to the Zunnuki senate for the treaty negotiations.
Almost every time a Zunnuki spoke within range of a CEF translator, it would tell its user that the language being spoken was some variant of Sumerian and then translate almost perfectly. There were a few regional dialects, but no other root language was spoken now or had ever been spoken by the natives of Terra Nova. The translations back into the Zunnuki language were a bit shaky since there were new concepts that ancient Sumerian didn’t have words for. And, until the translators could be tuned, the resulting attempts created some laughs, but the CEF linguists were certain that the language being spoken was indeed a variant of Sumerian or an antecedent. It deeply puzzled them, but it was a fact. The translators had proven it. The linguists used what they knew about ancient Sumerian to supplement their study of the Zunnuki language and started teaching the troops to speak and read it.
After they had finished their drinks, Calf Stealer excused himself. He apologized to the other two and told them that even though the light pipes from the surface provided natural daylight to the subterranean city around the clock this time of year, he had to make his way to the surface to see at least one of the two suns with his own eyes and breathe fresh air for a few minutes or he would come out of his skin. He said he would see them at 0600 in Buzami’s office and walked toward the stairs.
“Just how far down are we here,” Gupta asked Buzami.
“Fifty meters,” Buzami replied, “Not far at all.”
“Your underground cities are a marvel of engineering, Governor,” Gupta said, “I would imagine that my home world’s engineers and architects could spend years studying the design and construction techniques.”
“For my people, General Gupta, it has been adapt or die,” the governor told him. He waved his hand and held up his tankard, signaling the waiter for another beer. “Although it is settling down now, the sun has been unstable for the last half of a millennium,” he continued, “It wasn’t until about two hundred and fifty years ago that we had the scientific knowledge needed to determine what was happening to our people and environment. It took us nearly one hundred years to build our cities and move the populace underground. Of course, there were some of us who chose to remain on the surface, even as the solar winds became so strong that they penetrated our magnetosphere and scorched the face of our planet and evaporated away much of our oceans. Before that this district was the western coastal region.”
“You mean,” Gupta asked in amazement, “that most of this continent used to be under water?”
“Oh yes, General,” Buzami answered, “The western two-thirds of this continent and almost all of New Australia, except for the largest peaks of its northern mountains were completely under water! That is mostly why my people have not ventured there, and why Chamberlain’s people and the felines are having such a difficult time making the areas habitable.”
The waiter set two fresh beers in front of the general and the governor. Another waiter appeared behind him with Gupta’s dinner. Gupta forked a piece of meat that he would have sworn was curried chicken and placed it in his mouth. He chewed as he intently listened to Buzami continue his story of how the Zunnuki came to live under the surface.
“Before we realized that an increase in solar activity was to blame, there were those who claimed that overpopulation and rampant industrialism were the causes of our climate change and the thinning of our ozone layer,” Buzami said, smiling in amusement, “It seems ridiculous now after what has happened that anyone could have believed that people had the power to affect the environment so drastically. And, of course there were the zealots who pointed to the judgment of the gods as the reason we were suffering the famine and increased skin cancers. The environmentalists and zealots added a lot of noise to the debate, but gave us no real practical answers.”
“We were dealing with something similar starting about that time,” Gupta replied, “We saw an increase in solar activity and lost some of our polar icecaps, but we came through relatively unscathed.”
Buzami had another stiff drink and continued. “In the end,” he said, “reason and logic won out. But, it wasn’t until we had the ability to send probes to the other planets in the system, and saw that they were heating too, that it became obvious that there was something going on that was external to Zunnuki. We embarked on a project to measure the changes in the suns and found that not only the primary yellow, but also the orange sun were starting to emit extremely high energy x-rays at various times. Storms on both suns were at an all time high and activity was still increasing. We saw that if we didn’t find a way to shield the populace from the intensifying solar radiation, we would soon suffer mutations, or even extinction. There wasn’t enough room in the natural underground caverns for everyone, so we pooled all our resources and built twenty cities here on the large continent that were big enough to accommodate representative portions of our wildlife, enable us to raise livestock and build underground greenhouses. We also needed living quarters to house about eighty percent of our population.”
“Only eighty percent,” the General asked, “What about the rest?”
Buzami looked at Gupta and answered him. His answer seemed cold and unfeeling to the general, but Gupta had to admit to himself that it was the answer that he expected.
“We just didn’t have the time to build accommodations for everyone,” Buzami said, “In fact, our best calculations missed the solar maximum by minus fifteen years and the flare that knocked out our communications and navigation satellites was actually the kill shot that almost completely destroyed the surface ecosystem. At the time we still hadn’t gotten the subterranean farming and manufacturing up to one hundred percent capacity. Almost half of the population was still on the surface. The government warned the people to stay indoors during the times when their locales were facing the major sun, but even that did not shield them from the extreme radioactivity. In one month, half of those left on the surface developed aggressive skin cancers and cataracts, even with the most advanced sun screens and protective lenses that we had. The flare also heated up the atmosphere and turned the temperate and tropical zones into near deserts. All of our surface rivers dried up, and the oceans started to recede. We lost almost half our population and nearly ninety percent of the plants and wildlife left on the surface. So, you see? We didn’t have to choose who we allowed into the underground cities and who we banished to the surface to fend for themselves. A small mercy, if you consider a clear conscience vital to your well-being as your civilization faces extinction.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you, Governor,” General Gupta said, “I have been in the position of having to send human beings to their death, myself, and I realize that there are many situations where the choice is necessary…”
Buzami raised his open hands from the table and shrugged his shoulders as if to tell Gupta that an apology was unnecessary. “Knowing my people as I do, General, I must say that missing the date of the flare was divine providence,” Buzami said, “I honestly believe if that had not happened, the government would have lost its resolve to do what was required of them to ensure the survival of our people. They would have brought everyone underground and our resources would have not lasted long enough to wait out the solar event. There would have been no way to contain the rioting and crime that would have followed. As it turned out we had plenty to keep us and we have been able to take our time moving the populace back to the surface.”
“Governor Buzami,” Gupta said, “You know that my people stand ready to help with the reconstruction of the surface of your planet. We will even do what we can to restart the hydroponics and livestock production facilities on the ship that the expatriates from our planet left in orbit, so that our people will not be a burden on your planet’s resources while we are here. We will even teach your people to run the greenhouse so that you may take control of it…”
Buzami held up his hand to quiet the general. “Your people don’t have to sell anything to me or mine,” He said, “You have all of the advantages here. Your weapons are at least two hundred years more advanced than ours. We have spent most of the last two centuries just trying to survive. My people are not starving yet, but our scientists and our resource specialists all agree that we will be soon, if we can’t successfully start farming the surface again. We believe we can, by ourselves, but, of course, the help of your people would be welcomed.”
Buzami went quiet for a moment. He picked up his tankard of beer and took a large drink. He was fully aware of the overpopulation problem that plagued the Earth from his conversations with the leaders of the expatriates. He also knew that damage control was the reason the crew of the Ark was being persecuted even though it was nearly fifty years since they left Earth. Buzami looked around. This was his culture and he had a nagging feeling that he would be the last generation of his people to celebrate and appreciate it. He knew that within fifty years anything left of the Zunnuki culture would be in a museum or history book. Even now, though Gupta and Calf Stealer both spoke Zunnuki perfectly, He found himself speaking English or Sino, a mix of Mandarin Chinese and English, more often when he dealt with either of them.
That was another thing about the Terrans that concerned Buzami, the fact that Earth needed more than one spoken language. He had asked Gupta why Earth had not simply adopted a single language. Gupta’s answer sounded convoluted and silly to Buzami. All the talk of diversity and respect of other cultures smacked of moral cowardice and signaled to him that Gupta’s people were still struggling to overcome nationalism and sectarianism and the suppressed aggression that goes along with it and constantly boils under the surface.
He was sad about it, but he knew that without the help of people from Earth, his civilization faced extinction. Most of them had lost the desire to live on the surface and the plans to move them back up were meeting resistance. He knew that it would take an influx of colonists from Earth to get the rebuilding of the surface infrastructure moving and bring his people topside again.
“Still what worries me,” Governor Buzami continued, “is that I can’t see what is in this for your people?”
“I assure you that we have no intention of outstaying our welcome, Governor,” Gupta replied. He had an amused look on his face. “Our intentions are to establish diplomatic relations, if that is what the Zunnuki people wish, and to leave with our expatriates. Anything else that we do is a peace offering. Only that, and nothing more.”
“But what is your motivation, General,” Buzami asked. He was a career bureaucrat and knew nothing worth having ever came without a price tag. “Your government is trying to buy something, General,” the Governor said, “What is it that we have that you could possibly need?”
Gupta was dumbfounded. He had always been up front with Buzami and he didn’t understand why the Governor suddenly seemed suspicious of him and his government’s motives.
“We know why Chamberlain and those who were with him came here,” Buzami continued, once he saw that Gupta was temporarily speechless, “They were looking for a home where they could live out their lives as they wished. That is why we did not exterminate them, and we could have, if we wanted to…”
Gupta looked at Buzami as if he had just met the man. This was a conversation that he did not want to have with the governor; at least not at this point in the treaty process. The governor’s sudden change in attitude toward him had caught him off guard. Up until that point, he was confident that Calf Stealer, Buzami and he were actually forming a friendship.
Buzami could see that Gupta was uncomfortable. He felt a certain fondness for this off-worlder and did not want to offend him, but he could not let him off the hook just yet. He knew that there must be a hidden agenda behind the sudden appearance of the Earth fleet only a few months ago with no advanced radio signals or unmanned probes. “Do you know,” he asked Gupta, “that I sat in this very tavern with John Edward Chamberlain almost fifteen years ago, just before he died?”
Gupta indicated that it was news to him.
“I was the state representative at his funeral and I think that I was his greatest supporter among my people. I believe I know what motivated him,” Buzami expounded, “And, I think I actually understood his predicament. I don’t know for certain, though, just what it was that he and his people were running from. That concerns me greatly because you and those with you aren’t quite what I expected. At any rate, he arrived in a crippled spaceship with no real choice but to stay here or die. I also know who crippled it and that they had their own agenda, but of course, you wouldn’t have any idea what that was about?”
Gupta’s face was burning but he remained silent. There was quite a bit that he wanted to share with Buzami on an unofficial level, and he knew that he soon would. But, for now, he would allow Buzami to take his shots at him.
“I really wish his people had tried to talk to us first,” Buzami continued, “but they did not and that is now – How do your people put it? – ‘water under the bridge’? My planet does not want revenge on Chamberlain, or rather, those who came with him, for whatever reason they came. And, we take no great pleasure in knowing that you are forcing them to leave here and face an uncertain fate. You are uprooting their families. Some of them have children that were born here. What will happen to them? This is the only home that they have ever known. By birthright, they are Zunnuki. We gave those who were left the large island and the west coast of the continent out of compassion. We put the cats in charge of them only because that was what brought the cats to the bargaining table. They weren’t seeking revenge either, they only wanted to be sure that those who were in control of the Ark and her resources could never harm the cats, or us, ever again.”
Gupta tried to calm himself, but was still quite uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure if the governor was asking for himself, man to man, or for his government, so he was still wary and unsure that he could speak openly. It was annoying, but not unexpected that Buzami would know more about what transpired during the expatriates’ invasion of Zunnuki than he did. It was annoying because there were things about the invasion and the events on the Ark that preceded it that Gupta was not privy to, even though he was the commanding officer of the Judge Advocate General’s office assigned to the battle group. He wanted Buzami to tell him everything he knew, but realized he would also have to share some things Buzami was oblivious to in return. He bit his lip and let Buzami continue, hoping the governor’s penchant for never being more than five minutes away from a full tankard of beer would soon lead him to tell the full story without forcing the general to share too much, too soon.
“And, of course, the felines,” Buzami asked, “What of Colonel Calf Stealer? I happen to know that all my good friend Alphie wants is land to build a home, the right to live free and the means to raise a family. Thanks to the nobler of the Ark’s scientists, he will be able to, if not without some help. The plight of the felines is very sad…”
Gupta interrupted Buzami. This was one area where he felt that the Earth government held the higher moral ground. “Exactly what is it that you are getting at, Azir, “he asked, “We have promised the felines that we would do whatever we could to help them finally breed without cloned surrogates or technological help whatsoever! But, for some reason, none of the solutions that our scientists have come up with have been acceptable to them! We have also told them that they have the option join and serve with us in the CEF and travel to Earth and be citizens of that planet or to stay here on Zunnuki. They can do whatever they want. We have no ulterior motives…”
“Is it guilt, then,” Buzami asked.
“What do you mean, guilt,” Gupta asked back, looking incredulously at his Zunnuki host.
“I mean, Vijay,” the governor said, re-phrasing his earlier question, “that I want to know what is it that motivates your people to be so willing to try and cure the ills of my people and the felines? Is it guilt? Because, if it is, the Zunnuki people have told you that we feel none of this is your government’s responsibility and we aren’t asking for reparations.”
The general sat back in his chair and looked at Buzami, who seemed quite satisfied to have made his point. He asked the governor, “Are you telling me that you don’t trust my people because you lack the capacity to understand altruism, Azir?”
Buzami laughed out loud. He looked around for the waiter and signaled that it was time for two more beers. He knew that he would have to be friends for a much longer time before the general would be comfortable enough to be completely truthful with him. And, and as a career politician, he respected that in the man. “I only meant to convey my observation,” he replied, “that although such a noble concept exists, I find that it is rarely exhibited by the army with the larger weapons.”
This post is the chapter where I introduce Calf Stealer and two new characters, one from Terra Nova and one from Earth. It is from Calf Stealer's perspective that we learn much of what we find out about the feline's rebellion against the creators and their alliance with the Terra Novan natives, or Zunnuki. But, this chapter is mostly an exchange between General Gupta from Earth, and Azir Buzami, the governor of the district that contains the one of the Zunnuki cities. We also learn a little about the Zunnuki people and get a hint at where they may have come from originally.
Later, I'll post the next
Strangely enough, this chapter wrote itself. The dialog seemed to flow very easily and I have had to re-edit it very little. Enjoy!
16-April-2210
Azir Buzami picked up the tankard of beer from his desk and swallowed what was left. He then turned it upside down as if to prove to himself that it was empty, frowned and put it back down. He took a deep breath and exhaled. Up to this point, he had been able to hide his ennui quite well, but it was hours past time for him to leave for the day and he really was not keen on spending one more minute going back over the fourteen hundred and sixty some odd pages of the treaty.
The treaty, under its final review before coming to a vote in the Zunnuki senate, was to define diplomatic relations and promote military cooperation between the Zunnuki, the felines and the visitors from Mu’a Asari, The Water World, that circled Uttu; the yellow star, that shone brightly in the direction of the constellation known as the Throne of the Queen.
The irony of the name, Terra Nova, that the original invading Earth men had given Zunnuki, was not lost on Buzami, or the rest of his people. According to legend, the Zunnuki originally came from Mu’a Asari, or as it was called in the most ancient texts found on Zunnuki, Ki. The name Zunnuki was actually derived from the phrase Su’u’nu Ki, which meant Second World, or New World in that most ancient dialect. The texts, which spawned the only existing Zunnuki religion, told fantastic stories of how god-men came here in incredible flying machines to escape the Great War that was raging among the planets of the Uttu system. A war that was fought with weapons that could disintegrate whole planets with “sounds that could be felt, but not heard” or burn them to a cinder with “a heat that was greater than a thousand suns”.
The texts told of three factions, two that were human and one that was a race of upright-walking serpents, who fought over and held possession of most of the planets in the system at various times. The race that spawned the two human factions came originally from the fifth planet and the serpents came from the third, but there were human and serpent presences on all of the habitable planets and moons in the system. The war resulted in the complete destruction of the fifth planet and the ripping away of the atmosphere and oceans of the fourth, leaving it uninhabitable. Fearful groups of humans and serpents left the system before the destruction of the fifth planet, and were said to have settled on planets in every system with an orange or yellow sun for at least fifty light years in all directions from Uttu.
The legends promised the return of these god-men, to Zunnuki to collect everyone and take them back to resettle the third planet in the system and the only one left that was habitable. Those who still adhered to the Zunnuki religion awaited the call to return to Ki. When Zunnuki was informed where the Armstrong battle group came from, the faithful expected that call to come from them, but they waited in vain. Almost nobody else on the planet made the connection.
Buzami looked across the table at the Combined Earth Forces general and the feline colonel that were proof-reading the treaty along with him. Both looked back with the similar amounts of exhaustion clouding their visages. Buzami decided to take the gambit and suggest breaking for the day.
“If I have to look at this document a minute longer, General Gupta, my eyes will cross,” he said, and then glanced toward the feline, hoping for some sign of agreement.
“I must agree with Governor Buzami, General,” the feline added, “We’ve been at this for fourteen straight hours and I believe that unless we break from it for a while, we will become careless. I am not sure that I could say I haven’t missed an important detail or two already.”
Gupta looked at the other two. He was just as tired as they were, but they were under a deadline to finish examining the treaty and it was up to him to ensure that the deadline was met. Fourteen other trios, all made up of one Zunnuki, one representative from Earth and one feline each, were also going over the document. The teams had been given seven days to review the treaty and report to the Zunnuki senate. The groups were not to communicate with each other during that time and progress reports to their respective governments were prohibited. At the end of seven days the trios would contact the senate and inform them of any difficulties that any of the members had with the treaty and those would be discussed on the floor of the senate with representatives of the felines and Earth government present.
“We only have one day left,” Gupta stated matter-of-factly. Buzami and the feline, Colonel Calf-Stealer, looked at each other as if they knew what was coming next.
“General,” Buzami replied, almost reflexively, “We haven’t run into any real difficulties with the major principles of the document and I have a feeling that none of the other groups have gotten as far as we have. I believe that the senate will have to reconvene the triads after the briefings for at least another three days.”
Gupta looked at Calf Stealer. “Do you concur, Colonel,” he asked. Calf Stealer nodded in agreement.
“Well, gentlemen,” Gupta said, “I could certainly use some dinner and a rest myself. Governor? Colonel? Should we find the nearest tavern?”
The Zunnuki and the feline smiled and grabbed their jackets. They followed the terran general out of Buzami’s office and down the hallway to the front entrance of the district seat. They had not been on the surface of Terra Nova for six days and Calf Stealer was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. It was well after dinner time so the group decided that they should leave the city center and find a place to relax and have dinner closer to their quarters. They walked the half kilometer to the central train station to make the ride to the residential section of the city. It usually took thirty minutes to make the trip during business hours, but this late in the evening, the trip should be much shorter. Once they got to their train stop, there would be a host of dining and drinking establishments within walking distance of their final destination, Buzami’s apartment complex.
Once they were off the train, the trio took the nearest stairway up two levels to the station’s central dining area, and found a sidewalk table in front Buzami’s favorite tavern. All three ordered beers and Gupta asked for a menu. He needed no help reading it. He had learned Zunnuki quickly. Gupta was a linguist who fluently spoke every major language used on Earth at the current time. He was also an expert in primitive Earth cultures and ancient languages. He was very familiar with Sumerian and Sanskrit. The familiarity with Sumerian was the big reason that he was chosen as one of the Earth representatives to the Zunnuki senate for the treaty negotiations.
Almost every time a Zunnuki spoke within range of a CEF translator, it would tell its user that the language being spoken was some variant of Sumerian and then translate almost perfectly. There were a few regional dialects, but no other root language was spoken now or had ever been spoken by the natives of Terra Nova. The translations back into the Zunnuki language were a bit shaky since there were new concepts that ancient Sumerian didn’t have words for. And, until the translators could be tuned, the resulting attempts created some laughs, but the CEF linguists were certain that the language being spoken was indeed a variant of Sumerian or an antecedent. It deeply puzzled them, but it was a fact. The translators had proven it. The linguists used what they knew about ancient Sumerian to supplement their study of the Zunnuki language and started teaching the troops to speak and read it.
After they had finished their drinks, Calf Stealer excused himself. He apologized to the other two and told them that even though the light pipes from the surface provided natural daylight to the subterranean city around the clock this time of year, he had to make his way to the surface to see at least one of the two suns with his own eyes and breathe fresh air for a few minutes or he would come out of his skin. He said he would see them at 0600 in Buzami’s office and walked toward the stairs.
“Just how far down are we here,” Gupta asked Buzami.
“Fifty meters,” Buzami replied, “Not far at all.”
“Your underground cities are a marvel of engineering, Governor,” Gupta said, “I would imagine that my home world’s engineers and architects could spend years studying the design and construction techniques.”
“For my people, General Gupta, it has been adapt or die,” the governor told him. He waved his hand and held up his tankard, signaling the waiter for another beer. “Although it is settling down now, the sun has been unstable for the last half of a millennium,” he continued, “It wasn’t until about two hundred and fifty years ago that we had the scientific knowledge needed to determine what was happening to our people and environment. It took us nearly one hundred years to build our cities and move the populace underground. Of course, there were some of us who chose to remain on the surface, even as the solar winds became so strong that they penetrated our magnetosphere and scorched the face of our planet and evaporated away much of our oceans. Before that this district was the western coastal region.”
“You mean,” Gupta asked in amazement, “that most of this continent used to be under water?”
“Oh yes, General,” Buzami answered, “The western two-thirds of this continent and almost all of New Australia, except for the largest peaks of its northern mountains were completely under water! That is mostly why my people have not ventured there, and why Chamberlain’s people and the felines are having such a difficult time making the areas habitable.”
The waiter set two fresh beers in front of the general and the governor. Another waiter appeared behind him with Gupta’s dinner. Gupta forked a piece of meat that he would have sworn was curried chicken and placed it in his mouth. He chewed as he intently listened to Buzami continue his story of how the Zunnuki came to live under the surface.
“Before we realized that an increase in solar activity was to blame, there were those who claimed that overpopulation and rampant industrialism were the causes of our climate change and the thinning of our ozone layer,” Buzami said, smiling in amusement, “It seems ridiculous now after what has happened that anyone could have believed that people had the power to affect the environment so drastically. And, of course there were the zealots who pointed to the judgment of the gods as the reason we were suffering the famine and increased skin cancers. The environmentalists and zealots added a lot of noise to the debate, but gave us no real practical answers.”
“We were dealing with something similar starting about that time,” Gupta replied, “We saw an increase in solar activity and lost some of our polar icecaps, but we came through relatively unscathed.”
Buzami had another stiff drink and continued. “In the end,” he said, “reason and logic won out. But, it wasn’t until we had the ability to send probes to the other planets in the system, and saw that they were heating too, that it became obvious that there was something going on that was external to Zunnuki. We embarked on a project to measure the changes in the suns and found that not only the primary yellow, but also the orange sun were starting to emit extremely high energy x-rays at various times. Storms on both suns were at an all time high and activity was still increasing. We saw that if we didn’t find a way to shield the populace from the intensifying solar radiation, we would soon suffer mutations, or even extinction. There wasn’t enough room in the natural underground caverns for everyone, so we pooled all our resources and built twenty cities here on the large continent that were big enough to accommodate representative portions of our wildlife, enable us to raise livestock and build underground greenhouses. We also needed living quarters to house about eighty percent of our population.”
“Only eighty percent,” the General asked, “What about the rest?”
Buzami looked at Gupta and answered him. His answer seemed cold and unfeeling to the general, but Gupta had to admit to himself that it was the answer that he expected.
“We just didn’t have the time to build accommodations for everyone,” Buzami said, “In fact, our best calculations missed the solar maximum by minus fifteen years and the flare that knocked out our communications and navigation satellites was actually the kill shot that almost completely destroyed the surface ecosystem. At the time we still hadn’t gotten the subterranean farming and manufacturing up to one hundred percent capacity. Almost half of the population was still on the surface. The government warned the people to stay indoors during the times when their locales were facing the major sun, but even that did not shield them from the extreme radioactivity. In one month, half of those left on the surface developed aggressive skin cancers and cataracts, even with the most advanced sun screens and protective lenses that we had. The flare also heated up the atmosphere and turned the temperate and tropical zones into near deserts. All of our surface rivers dried up, and the oceans started to recede. We lost almost half our population and nearly ninety percent of the plants and wildlife left on the surface. So, you see? We didn’t have to choose who we allowed into the underground cities and who we banished to the surface to fend for themselves. A small mercy, if you consider a clear conscience vital to your well-being as your civilization faces extinction.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you, Governor,” General Gupta said, “I have been in the position of having to send human beings to their death, myself, and I realize that there are many situations where the choice is necessary…”
Buzami raised his open hands from the table and shrugged his shoulders as if to tell Gupta that an apology was unnecessary. “Knowing my people as I do, General, I must say that missing the date of the flare was divine providence,” Buzami said, “I honestly believe if that had not happened, the government would have lost its resolve to do what was required of them to ensure the survival of our people. They would have brought everyone underground and our resources would have not lasted long enough to wait out the solar event. There would have been no way to contain the rioting and crime that would have followed. As it turned out we had plenty to keep us and we have been able to take our time moving the populace back to the surface.”
“Governor Buzami,” Gupta said, “You know that my people stand ready to help with the reconstruction of the surface of your planet. We will even do what we can to restart the hydroponics and livestock production facilities on the ship that the expatriates from our planet left in orbit, so that our people will not be a burden on your planet’s resources while we are here. We will even teach your people to run the greenhouse so that you may take control of it…”
Buzami held up his hand to quiet the general. “Your people don’t have to sell anything to me or mine,” He said, “You have all of the advantages here. Your weapons are at least two hundred years more advanced than ours. We have spent most of the last two centuries just trying to survive. My people are not starving yet, but our scientists and our resource specialists all agree that we will be soon, if we can’t successfully start farming the surface again. We believe we can, by ourselves, but, of course, the help of your people would be welcomed.”
Buzami went quiet for a moment. He picked up his tankard of beer and took a large drink. He was fully aware of the overpopulation problem that plagued the Earth from his conversations with the leaders of the expatriates. He also knew that damage control was the reason the crew of the Ark was being persecuted even though it was nearly fifty years since they left Earth. Buzami looked around. This was his culture and he had a nagging feeling that he would be the last generation of his people to celebrate and appreciate it. He knew that within fifty years anything left of the Zunnuki culture would be in a museum or history book. Even now, though Gupta and Calf Stealer both spoke Zunnuki perfectly, He found himself speaking English or Sino, a mix of Mandarin Chinese and English, more often when he dealt with either of them.
That was another thing about the Terrans that concerned Buzami, the fact that Earth needed more than one spoken language. He had asked Gupta why Earth had not simply adopted a single language. Gupta’s answer sounded convoluted and silly to Buzami. All the talk of diversity and respect of other cultures smacked of moral cowardice and signaled to him that Gupta’s people were still struggling to overcome nationalism and sectarianism and the suppressed aggression that goes along with it and constantly boils under the surface.
He was sad about it, but he knew that without the help of people from Earth, his civilization faced extinction. Most of them had lost the desire to live on the surface and the plans to move them back up were meeting resistance. He knew that it would take an influx of colonists from Earth to get the rebuilding of the surface infrastructure moving and bring his people topside again.
“Still what worries me,” Governor Buzami continued, “is that I can’t see what is in this for your people?”
“I assure you that we have no intention of outstaying our welcome, Governor,” Gupta replied. He had an amused look on his face. “Our intentions are to establish diplomatic relations, if that is what the Zunnuki people wish, and to leave with our expatriates. Anything else that we do is a peace offering. Only that, and nothing more.”
“But what is your motivation, General,” Buzami asked. He was a career bureaucrat and knew nothing worth having ever came without a price tag. “Your government is trying to buy something, General,” the Governor said, “What is it that we have that you could possibly need?”
Gupta was dumbfounded. He had always been up front with Buzami and he didn’t understand why the Governor suddenly seemed suspicious of him and his government’s motives.
“We know why Chamberlain and those who were with him came here,” Buzami continued, once he saw that Gupta was temporarily speechless, “They were looking for a home where they could live out their lives as they wished. That is why we did not exterminate them, and we could have, if we wanted to…”
Gupta looked at Buzami as if he had just met the man. This was a conversation that he did not want to have with the governor; at least not at this point in the treaty process. The governor’s sudden change in attitude toward him had caught him off guard. Up until that point, he was confident that Calf Stealer, Buzami and he were actually forming a friendship.
Buzami could see that Gupta was uncomfortable. He felt a certain fondness for this off-worlder and did not want to offend him, but he could not let him off the hook just yet. He knew that there must be a hidden agenda behind the sudden appearance of the Earth fleet only a few months ago with no advanced radio signals or unmanned probes. “Do you know,” he asked Gupta, “that I sat in this very tavern with John Edward Chamberlain almost fifteen years ago, just before he died?”
Gupta indicated that it was news to him.
“I was the state representative at his funeral and I think that I was his greatest supporter among my people. I believe I know what motivated him,” Buzami expounded, “And, I think I actually understood his predicament. I don’t know for certain, though, just what it was that he and his people were running from. That concerns me greatly because you and those with you aren’t quite what I expected. At any rate, he arrived in a crippled spaceship with no real choice but to stay here or die. I also know who crippled it and that they had their own agenda, but of course, you wouldn’t have any idea what that was about?”
Gupta’s face was burning but he remained silent. There was quite a bit that he wanted to share with Buzami on an unofficial level, and he knew that he soon would. But, for now, he would allow Buzami to take his shots at him.
“I really wish his people had tried to talk to us first,” Buzami continued, “but they did not and that is now – How do your people put it? – ‘water under the bridge’? My planet does not want revenge on Chamberlain, or rather, those who came with him, for whatever reason they came. And, we take no great pleasure in knowing that you are forcing them to leave here and face an uncertain fate. You are uprooting their families. Some of them have children that were born here. What will happen to them? This is the only home that they have ever known. By birthright, they are Zunnuki. We gave those who were left the large island and the west coast of the continent out of compassion. We put the cats in charge of them only because that was what brought the cats to the bargaining table. They weren’t seeking revenge either, they only wanted to be sure that those who were in control of the Ark and her resources could never harm the cats, or us, ever again.”
Gupta tried to calm himself, but was still quite uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure if the governor was asking for himself, man to man, or for his government, so he was still wary and unsure that he could speak openly. It was annoying, but not unexpected that Buzami would know more about what transpired during the expatriates’ invasion of Zunnuki than he did. It was annoying because there were things about the invasion and the events on the Ark that preceded it that Gupta was not privy to, even though he was the commanding officer of the Judge Advocate General’s office assigned to the battle group. He wanted Buzami to tell him everything he knew, but realized he would also have to share some things Buzami was oblivious to in return. He bit his lip and let Buzami continue, hoping the governor’s penchant for never being more than five minutes away from a full tankard of beer would soon lead him to tell the full story without forcing the general to share too much, too soon.
“And, of course, the felines,” Buzami asked, “What of Colonel Calf Stealer? I happen to know that all my good friend Alphie wants is land to build a home, the right to live free and the means to raise a family. Thanks to the nobler of the Ark’s scientists, he will be able to, if not without some help. The plight of the felines is very sad…”
Gupta interrupted Buzami. This was one area where he felt that the Earth government held the higher moral ground. “Exactly what is it that you are getting at, Azir, “he asked, “We have promised the felines that we would do whatever we could to help them finally breed without cloned surrogates or technological help whatsoever! But, for some reason, none of the solutions that our scientists have come up with have been acceptable to them! We have also told them that they have the option join and serve with us in the CEF and travel to Earth and be citizens of that planet or to stay here on Zunnuki. They can do whatever they want. We have no ulterior motives…”
“Is it guilt, then,” Buzami asked.
“What do you mean, guilt,” Gupta asked back, looking incredulously at his Zunnuki host.
“I mean, Vijay,” the governor said, re-phrasing his earlier question, “that I want to know what is it that motivates your people to be so willing to try and cure the ills of my people and the felines? Is it guilt? Because, if it is, the Zunnuki people have told you that we feel none of this is your government’s responsibility and we aren’t asking for reparations.”
The general sat back in his chair and looked at Buzami, who seemed quite satisfied to have made his point. He asked the governor, “Are you telling me that you don’t trust my people because you lack the capacity to understand altruism, Azir?”
Buzami laughed out loud. He looked around for the waiter and signaled that it was time for two more beers. He knew that he would have to be friends for a much longer time before the general would be comfortable enough to be completely truthful with him. And, and as a career politician, he respected that in the man. “I only meant to convey my observation,” he replied, “that although such a noble concept exists, I find that it is rarely exhibited by the army with the larger weapons.”