Quorum of War (Part Seven)
“Might I ask what sentence you have decided upon?” Rowan and the Seer were standing in the doorway and didn’t seem inclined to move. He saw the fear of genocide on their faces. She must have asked the Seer about his history. Well, he had wanted her to know.
He pulled up a map of this now accursed empire and flashed a feral grin, “Certainly. The Council complex will fall to dust, as will anyone and anything currently standing it. I estimate that will kill off central government within a generation. Those who sentenced our children to death will be wiped from the planet.” He expanded the map, “For the rest, I am banishing them from space. Until the newest of their newborns has fallen to old age, not a ship, not a satellite or signal will be permitted to leave any of their worlds. They shall fall into silence until the last of those responsible have died. I will be announcing it to them tomorrow and give them a few months to land. Famine would spoil the point and I already have everything mapped out.”
He added, “And of course, Beacon will cut his way through their worlds as he sees fit. I see no reason to stop him. They will have learned many valuable lessons, such as,” his voice rose and sharpened and the barest echo of his rage showed, “Such as don’t burn down one of our worlds. Don’t even carry matches near our children!”
Rowan listened carefully and slowly nodded, “That is remarkably kind of you. I might have preferred more fire, but I expect Beacon will do that for me.”
The Seer nodded, “Seen and witnessed. Perhaps they will have learned to share the galaxy when you release them from the prison they have built for themselves.” He looked sharply at Silver Wisp, “You have grown since the fires. I’m proud of you, Son.”
Silver Wisp nodded, “Thank you, now if you don’t mind I have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it.”
Rowan raised a hand, “Peace. I asked the Seer to show me your memories, to understand why you became a creature of metal and war. You are correct that I was a child, although it didn't feel like a childhood. I saw forests burn but I didn’t see the war. I didn’t see the price you paid when you left the green for the black. That you broke the bodies of our enemies and used the cold metal to build something better. I did not know that this ship was made from the corpses of our enemies so that you could guard our green spaces. I simply wanted to say thank you.” She bowed low and headed towards the great trees that he had grown upon the enemy dead. She wondered what she was supposed to feel because she actually felt herself strike the bare metal floor a little harder and smile, the faint smell of burning that always seemed to be in the air now explained.
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Beacon got a call from Earth. Not a call really, they had no interest in speaking to him. It told him what was about to happen. It told him he could continue his work if he chose to and gave him the crew lists of every ship the enemy had sent against his world and where he could probably find them. He found himself agreeing with the strange justice. He had never met this Silver Wisp but he got the sense that he had carried a knife in his day and had become something more.
For now, he had a blade and a battleship to kill.
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Silver Wisp knelt and carefully brushed the dirt from the fourth altar that had been recovered from the destroyed planet. This one had not been blessed. It was an altar of metal and that would remain with him and be added to his ship. He carried it to the weapons foundry and watched it melt into the vast reservoirs he maintained. Soon it would be needed again.
He began by sending the other three to the quorum. Ice to the musicians, stone to the spacers and soil to the forests. To each their own.
Then he began casting the interdictors, battleship-sized machines that would enforce the sentence he was about to pass. He felt having one in orbit over each and every world would make the point faster than a simple message. He crafted them carefully and made sure a little bit of the new iron was included on every ship.
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The Council had been recovered from the failing depths of the palace by many sweating Armsmen. Some had not been able to make the climb and all that remained stood in bewildered silence. They had ruled a thousand worlds and now it was turning to dust in front of them. Literally. They had seen the cracks spread, the fall of much of the edifice and now they found the chamber itself was simply…gone. Now it was in their clothes, in their scales and fur. The human disease was eating them alive.
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The human thing appeared. They had long since lost track of the hours, their screens had failed long ago. They simply stood in bitter silence.
Silver Wisp looked at the tattered remains of this vicious government. Killers of children. He laughed, “It sucks, doesn’t it? Someone you never met, never offended, suddenly seeks you out and destroys everything you care about? It was much simpler when you didn’t know we would find you. That it was bigger than you could imagine.
That it could happen to you. You have damned yourselves, even as you sat and read reports of the strange creatures on the edge of your space and thought to kill them. We have done the same. Each and every one of your people will know of your failure. Some will even pray that your children die young so that they may return to space.
No.
The time is set and we will meet your people when the last of you is gone. This time I hope you offer an open hand and trust me on this, I will be there to see that day and I will stand in judgement. I and the other eighty-five thousand planets that are human. The nine-million orbitals, fleets and habitats. You are condemned to dust and your empire with you. I leave you the full sentence, please read it. Terms and conditions apply.”
He returned to his ship and began supervising his new fleet as it made its way into the low orbit of every planet of this dead empire. Then he set an alarm and went to meet with the witnesses. They probably had questions.
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The creature was old, scales faded and chipped. Someone had rough-polished them before he had entered the village house but he looked like a lost thing until he found his seat and supped greedily at the soup. “So, today I tell the tale. I will speak of when the stars fell silent and why.” He croaked a little, “Ahem. We were a people of wonder, a thousand worlds under our reign until something came out of the dark for us. You have seen what they did, the great pit that was our city, the single bloody star that watches us and deafens our cries for help. One day it will fall and we will rise against them again. They called themselves hu-mn and they are creatures of metal and hate. Long did their god of death walk amongst us, with its dark blade. They say even the hu-mn feared him until he had filled his thirst and returned to the dark…”
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The woman was old, old as the rocks as they say, but her voice grew young in the song. “Cast down we were, for putting fire to a young world. All our wealth was cast away in a moment of madness. We sought to destroy our fears, for there they all were, sitting on a single rock. Clever we thought we were, cunning and we chose to strike in the dark and kill them we did! But bright fires cast deep shadows and from the dark came those that guarded them. Their rage was such that they turned an empire to dust and sent us back to till the soil. Their death walked with us, looking for his lost children they say but his heavy blade found only their murderers. Stay silent he said, silence until the last of you are passed for the sound of your voice will bring death upon you! Our rage is too great and we fear what we will do. Hide until we no longer weep…”
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Today Rowan was feeling her age, her branches stiffening and her heartwood burdened by too many memories. She had pondered on a change but nothing had seemed to pierce her spirit. She had been surprised when the Seer had arrived, calling the Quorum of War to witness the end. Time moved so fast. They sat above the sealed worlds, the one that had, in their long-forgotten past, dared to burn a human world. She felt only sadness. “How long has it been? It seems an age ago.”
The Seer nodded, “To us… a couple of hundred years, give or take. To them? An eternity. Silver Wisp sent them back to a new beginning.”
She waved at the scanner, “Where is he? He said he would be here for this. He even wrote it down somewhere.”
The Seer nodded, “Yes, I suspect he is on his way. He tends to think hard about these things. He has an ending in mind.”
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A thousand ships over a thousand worlds watched an old woman die and the sentence was ended. Blood red went to bright blue and then flickered away. A message was sent to those that could hear, “The stars are open to you again. This time come as friends. There won’t be a next time.”
A thousand ships, all one, all shattered and waiting. Watching and unforgiving but the alarm rang and the summons came. Over the Council planet, they met and melded, the one that guarded the green spaces was becoming whole once again.
They watched as a thousand ships collided, as the light became greater than the sun. Rowan smiled and her leaves rustled wildly and she squeaked. “He’s home!” She turned with a look at the Seer, “You don’t need to tell him I said that.”
The Seer bowed and merely glanced into the future. It was good that his son would find such happiness.
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