*****AUDIO FILE***** "Chapter 53 - Loyalties - Audio File" [The White Raven, Chapter 53, Loyalties] [White University, Eagle Province] Raen walked across the campus and admired the work the White Raven had done in such a short time. The University consisted of five large red-brick buildings with tall columns lining the entrance of each. The lawns were scattered with life-size sculptures of early Daraian scholars, along with models of early discoveries. A group of students were sitting around a statue of Narae Taenous, the scientist that discovered and wrote the Law of Gravity, and several more were playing a game of Hoppy-ball near a statue of Galious, the first Daraian to propose the theory that the sun did not revolve around Darai - Galious was burned at the stake as a heretic. Raen stopped at a large sundial made of copper and checked the time against the shadow on the dial. The sundial was a simple invention but peaked Raen’s sense of curiosity and he watched the shadow for a few minutes. “Excuse me, Prince Raen,” says a girl approaching the sundial with a group of other students. The others in the group attempted a relatively decent bow in greeting, but not the girl. The girl was in her late teens, and stood with her feet slightly apart and squared her shoulders in a defiant stance. “I’m Alea,” says the girl. “We were having a discussion in political science class and thought you would be the perfect person to solve a little argument.” Raen grinned pleasantly and doubted the girl wanted him to solve any argument, she was looking for a fight. “How can I help?” asks Raen. Alea puts her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes. “Isn’t it true the Government exists to serve the people, and not the people the Government?” “Absolutely not,” replies Raen. “The people exist to serve the Government whom in turn exist to serve and exert the will of the Temple under the authority and doctrine of the Goddess.” Alea’s expression looked like Raen just shoved a particularly foul rodent at her. “But that’s…” “A feudal theocracy and the legal form of government on Darai,” replies Raen. “But you have said we seek to be free,” argues Alea. “And what is freedom?” asks Raen. “Is it to exert your own ideals upon others?” “Freedom is the will of the people,” replies Alea. “Is it?” asks Raen. “Of course it is,” says Alea. “When the majority will of the people cry out for change, then it is the responsibility of the government to either step aside, or exact that change.” Raen saw the White Raven arrive at the edge of the crowd and stop to listen to Rean's answer. “And if everyone on Darai except one person wants the change you would propose, have you done nothing more than use the force of many to impose a prison on that one person?” asks Raen. “The change would be for their own good,” replies Alea realizing she was losing the argument. “Isn’t that what you’ve done, forcing your idea of what’s right upon everyone in Eagle Province.” “I have not started a civil war, as you would suggest,” says Raen. “I worked within the established culture of Darai to build a Province that protects and nurtures those that can not, until they can.” “That isn’t freedom, that’s you forcing what you think is best for everyone,” says Alea raising her voice. Raen lays his hand on Alea’s shoulder. “I could use someone like you on my staff, perhaps an intern position,” says Raen. “No,” replies Alea. “Give it some thought,” says Raen. “Alright, everyone get to class,” says the White Raven clapping her hands and shooing the students away. The White Raven gave Raen a scathing glare after the students were gone. “You’re trying to recruit her away from a noble path so that you can control her," accuses the White Raven. “I’m offering her a career where she could do some good for Darai,” replies Raen. “Everyone has been saying you’re turning into a manipulative Daraian Prince, I guess it’s true. All you want is to have her under your control so you can make her part of your Empire and profit from her labors as your slave,” says the White Raven. The White Raven’s face was red with anger. She had always been a pain in the backside, but this was something different - this was dangerous inflammatory rhetoric at best, traitorous rebellion at worst. But Raen didn't want to get in an argument with her and only smiled pleasantly, trying to keep his temper in check. “What did you really come here for?” asks the White Raven. “Certainly not to anger and upset you,” says Raen. “But have a care what you are pushing these students towards. Would you create libelous government protesters that can only end with them marching on the Senate and being mercilessly gunned down. We have advanced past an age of civil war, our technology is too advanced and threats to Darai can too easily be crushed. Use your head, Priestess, I see a way for that young lady to actually do some good.” “I’ll be speaking to the High Priestess about this,” threatens the White Raven. Raen lost his temper at that. “Do whatever you wish, I won’t bother you again, their blood is on your hands.” Raen stormed away and left the campus swearing not to return. Raen was nearly back to the main street of town when Cala caught up with him. “Raen, wait, please, hold up,” shouts Cala. Cala ran in front of Raen and walked backwards. “I’m on your side,” says Cala. “There are no sides, Cala,” replies Raen. “I’m not a little kid anymore, I’m fourteen” says Cala. “I know she’s teaching dumb stuff, and I know what will happen.” “Really, what do you think will happen?” asks Raen stopping before the boy trips backwards over something. “If anyone holds up a protest sign you have to send troops, and if you don’t, the Senate will send Commonwealth troops,” says Cala. Raen sighs. “She’s the White Raven, she can get away with a bit more than a few protests before all that happens. What’s Kata think?” “She’s on White’s side,” says Cala. “That’s a switch,” says Raen. Cala shrugs. “I just don’t want White to get hurt.” “Okay, I’ll talk with the High Priestess,” says Raen. “But I’m sick and tired of the White Raven always causing trouble.” “It’s not her, it’s Alea, she’s the one causing all the trouble,” explains Cala. “White just never had friends and Alea is manipulating her.” “The White Raven is one of the most intelligent people on this planet, and you’re telling me she’s being manipulated,” says Raen. Cala shifts self-consciously on his feet and squints one eye before replying. “Can I say something without you getting mad?” asks Cala. “You can always talk to me,” says Raen. “It’s partly your fault she’s being manipulated,” says Cala. “You were supposed to be guarding her.” “Cala, I have her surrounded by an army, she’s never been in any danger,” says Raen. “But, she’s a grown woman and needs to stop acting like a child.” Cala glances around as if he were afraid someone would over-hear him. “I did some research on the White Ravens,” whispers Cala. “None of them are really right in the head, it’s a genetic defect, that’s what makes them White Ravens. Thousands of years ago the early Ravens thought they had some kind of magical connection to the Goddess, and so they were treated special, and it just carried over through the centuries. There isn’t many books that talk about it, but it’s there, if you look hard enough.” “Give your research to Doctor Mergan,” says Raen. “Tell her I want an evaluation of what you’ve discovered.” “You won’t tell anyone you got it from me, will you?” asks Cala. “I won’t tell anyone at all,” says Raen. “But if what you’re telling me is what I think you’re telling me, I’ll find a way to put someone close to the White Raven so she won’t get into anymore trouble. Fair enough?” “Fair enough,” says Cala nodding. “Now, what do you think should be done about Alea?” asks Raen. Cala’s eyes narrow. “Kill her, or make her go away. If you don’t, I will.” Raen was visibly shocked. “My wings are painted white, but I’m still a Raven, and she’s hurting my mother,” whispers Cala. Now Raen understood. Cala wasn’t necessarily on Raen’s side, Cala saw a threat to his mother and Raen was a way to dispose of that threat. Raen couldn’t fault Cala, he was responding as any Raven would to his mother being in danger. “Do nothing, for now,” warns Raen. “I’ll deal with it, now run along.” Raen watched Cala run back towards the campus. If the boy was old enough to consider taking a kill, he was also old enough to have grown into being manipulative. Raen would have to look closer at what was happening at the University. Raen walked back to the Palace and found Moeth standing near the gates talking with some hatchlings. Moeth took one look at Raen’s expression and chased the hatchlings away, then waited for Raen to speak. “Have your Ravens look into what’s happening at the University, specifically, a girl by the name of Alea, she may be a threat to the White Raven.” Raen pauses, sighs, and rubs the bridge of his nose. “And look into Cala and Kata’s activities, I want to know their loyalties.” Moeth grins. “It’s about time, I’ll have a report on your desk within the week,” says Moeth. “Would you also like a report on my own activities and loyalties?” Raen draws his Talon Dagger and steps in close to Moeth, pressing the point of his dagger against his own chest and placing her hands on the hilt. “If you are disloyal to me, or you believe I am disloyal to you, make it quick, I no longer wish to live,” whispers Raen. Moeth takes the dagger and slips it back into his sheath. “Don’t be so dramatic. Others can plainly see we are at a disagreement in many areas, especially our personal relationship. Factions and intrigue will grow in the Palace now, let others think we are at odds. It will ferret out the plots, and serve to protect our Empire.” “We have to give that Empire to Lord Eagle one day,” says Raen. “Foolish Raen. No, you will not give away our Empire,” says Moeth. “You will give Lord Eagle the throne, this palace, this Province, and a sufficient wealth to go with it. And then, we will form a subject House under House Eagle, as it should be. Other Houses will form as well, Lord Robin is likely to be one of those other Houses, you should talk with him about it, I suspect he has been waiting for you to extend the offer." “And what would our new House be called?” asks Raen confused. “You will decide that when the time comes,” replies Moeth. “For now, we continue building our forces.” “I see, you’re proposing that we will be the Eagle’s Military House?” asks Raen. “Your Shadow Ravens and my Hawk Storm Wings?” “You’re finally catching on,” says Moeth, her eyes flicking to the sides. “People are watching, I have to do something now or they will think we are reconciling, and that would ruin my plans to uncover the treachery that has been growing.” “What are you going to…” Moeth slaps Raen hard across the face and storms away to the shocked expression on Raen’s face. A dozen factions that had been hovering in the shadow of the Palace fringes solidified at that moment and began forming their plots. The Eagle Palace had just joined the legacy of Daraian intrigue, as all palaces must - Raen was far too wealthy now to not have enemies. Raen suspected Moeth's slap was more genuine than not, she may be loyal, but she was truly angry with Raen. Raen shrugged it off and walked towards the main entrance of the palace. The Storm Wings guards defiantly took positions around Raen and slammed the Palace gates shut - Raen grinned, it was like locking the barn door after the horse had gotten out, and came back on it’s own. Clap ran out onto the balcony over-looking the lawn, Raen could see he was excited about something. “There you are, hurry up, get up here,” shouts Clap. “I’m coming,” shouts Raen taking the curved stairs two at a time. “What is it.” “I’ll show you, come on,” says Clap. Raen followed Clap down the west hall and through the doors to the new Com-Center. Much of the equipment was new and still unpacked, and what was unpacked was in half stages of installation. “I just got the printers hooked up and ran a test connection to the Hawk Deep Space Observatory and these started pouring out,” says Clap showing Raen photographs lying on a big table in the center of the room. “What am I looking at?” asks Raen. “That’s Demonia,” replies Clap pointing at the fuzzy picture of a planet. “Since when does Demonia have a asteroid ring?” says Raen. “Nobody knows, it wasn’t there during the last pass of that region by the Falconus Deep Space Telescope six months ago,” says Clap. “But that’s not all, look closer, do you notice anything?” Raen stared at the photographs unsure what he was supposed to be looking at, then something occurred to him was missing. “Where’s all the debris from the war?” asks Raen. “It’s gone, all of it,” says Clap handing more photographs over. “These are where the largest debris fields were, they’re all gone.” “Salvage ships?” asks Raen. “It would have taken hundreds of years to clean that mess up,” says Clap. “There’s one other mystery.” Clap hands Raen another photograph of the planet. “What are those?” asks Raen. “We can’t tell, it’s too far away for a good photograph, but we think they’re spacecraft, and big ones,” says Clap. “Hawk Space Command is going nuts trying to figure it out.” “Ring and Vel found the Dragon,” says Raen. “We need to get the Albatross launched.” “We might be able to launch in four more months,” says Clap. “Dammit, it’s been five years since Ring and Vel left, get the Albatross in the air,” says Raen. “And if Hawk Space Command asks us, we don’t know anything.” ***** [Seed Ship, Draekus Moon, Planet Darai] “I’m sorry, I know you like them.” “The virus did it.” “Nature is taking over, they just weren’t meant to be in this era.” “The Aedi wrote about this stage, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.” Ring checked the survey figures again, the planet was moving from an artificial ecosystem to a natural ecosystem, and rapidly. The release of the necessary viruses into the ecosystem had drastically altered the planet below from the test ecosystem. “Over ninety percent of the velociraptors are dead, and there’s only a handful of smilodons left,” says Ring. “We have to give the order to simulate the next stage of evolution,” urges Vel. “We still have a year and a half of dropping the ice comets,” says Ring. “I know, many species will be wiped out,” says Vel. “But that will simulate natural selection and evolution.” Ring typed the command into the control panel, and somewhere deep in the Seed Ship, the Terraformers watching over the millions of species that had been recreated from the ancient Aedi DNA database began loading into the transports. “I see you trying to cover that entry with your hand,” says Vel. “Let me see.” Ring moved his hand and Vel read the entry and instructions he had given to the Terraformers for placement. “Oh my,” gushes Vel hugging Ring. “That is so sweet, Prince Mischief will love it.” “He should be able to see them from the observation window and know we’re still thinking of him,” says Ring. ***** [Zam’s Cave, Planet Demonia] Food was getting scarce, and Zam was getting worried. He had a routine for finding food, but now it was getting harder and harder. The big jawed velociraptors hunted the curved toothed cats, and Zam stole the velociraptors kill about once a week. But, the velociraptors were getting harder to find, and he hadn’t seen any of the curved toothed cats since the last time he had stolen one. Zam checked all the places the velociraptors slept, but their nests were all empty. He had found two of the large dinosaurs dead, but he left them, they didn’t look right, like they had been sick before they died. The trees were taller than he was now, soon everything would be a forest. The lake was ill looking, muddy, and a swirling mass of debris of vegetation. The constantly falling mud-ice comets never gave the water a chance to settle. Zam had to get his water from the rain storms that now raged between the falling comets. He walked along the edge of the lake poking at things with a stick. He poked at a rock and nearly jumped out of his skin when it ran away. “A mouse…?” Zam followed the mouse but it found a hole and disappeared. He poked at the hole for awhile but the mouse wouldn’t come out. The sky was growing dark again, he would need to get back to his cave. The mist still covered the ground, but it only came to the middle of his shins now, instead of his knees. He kicked at the grass as he walked, hoping to find something to eat, maybe some berries. The grass moved and Zam froze, then slowly poked his stick at the grass and something much larger than a mouse jumped up and ran, startling him enough to trans-jump away. Zam crouched and watched. Something was moving through the grass, a lot of somethings. He raised his stick and roared. “I’m not scared of you,” he shouted and ran into the grass swinging his stick. Rabbits fled in every direction from the attack. Zam watched them and started laughing. “What’s going on, where did the mice and rabbits come from?” Zam chased the rabbits around the grass until the sound of a mud-ice comet landing startled him. The storm was starting again. He trans-jumped five times to get back to his cave and stood at the entrance watching the comets until he got bored. It was starting to get chilly again and he retreated to the back of the cave and lit his little fire. There was still some meat left, and he chewed on that for awhile before drifting off to sleep. Something woke him a little while later and he sat up - something was in the cave. Had the velociraptors come back? Zam picked up his sharp rock and crawled around his campfire. He didn’t see any velociraptors, or the curved tooth cats, had he imagined it. Then something… barked at him. He scurried back behind his fire and tried to find what was inside his cave. A moment later a small creature came out from behind a rock. Zam’s eyes widened as he recognized the bushy-tailed creature - It was a fox! No… not one fox, there was another, at the entrance to the cave. Zam’s eyes caught movement behind the first fox, there were more behind him. It was a whole den of foxes, they had come into the cave to escape the storm outside. “Hello, it’s okay, I’ll share my cave with you. Are you hungry?” Zam broke off a small piece of meat and held it out. The fox made no move to come any closer. “Are you shy, I won’t hurt you.” Zam tossed the piece of meat to the fox. It backed away cautiously, and then curiosity got the better of it and the fox inched slowly towards the meat. The fox sniffed at the piece of meat and pushed it with his nose, then nibbled at it. Another fox came out of the shadows to see what the first fox had and they argued over the piece of meat by making a warbling sound. “I got more, here.” Zam broke off more meat and tossed it to the two foxes. A few minutes later and all the foxes were gobbling up the pieces of meat as fast as Zam could throw them. He tried to count the foxes, there were maybe eight or nine of them, it was hard to tell. They would run out of the safety of the rocks, grab a piece, and run back into the shadows with their prizes. “That’s it, all gone, unless you want the bones.” The bones kicked off another argument between the foxes. Zam watched for awhile, excited to have company, but his eyes grew heavy and he lay on his side and fell asleep. Zam woke for a moment when something touched him. One of the foxes had decided it was cold and Zam’s coat looked comfortable. The fox was curled up on the edge of the hide. “You can stay as long as you want,” whispered Zam sleepily. The fox turned it’s head and stared at Zam with it’s bright intelligent eyes. Zam closed his eyes and went back to sleep. The fox lay it’s head back down and slept.