Chapter 3: A Small Problem
Two days later, Luchs awakened Faust in the middle of the night, shaking him and urging him to get up quickly.
"I'm awake," Faust muttered, trying to pull himself together. He'd been having that dream again, about being out among the stars in the ship with the woman, and he'd been close to seeing who she was. He shook his head to clear it. "What's happening?"
"The army's storming the palace, Faust-sama."
"What?" Faust came completely awake in a second, and pulled himself out of bed. "What happened? When did this start? And why aren't the military's marionettes taking care of it?"
Luchs paused, and Faust saw her eyes start to glow blue behind her bangs. "They've nearly breached the front gate," she said. "There are enough troops inside to hold them back for a while. I'm not getting anything about the marionettes, something might have happened." The light faded, and she looked at him. "We should get you to the command center, Faust-sama."
"Right. Just let me get dressed." He grinned at the confused look on her face. "They're still my army, Luchs. I'm not going to face them down in my boxer shorts."
She smiled, and once again, he saw the hint of something not-quite-innocent in her face. "Of course, Faust-sama. Shall I wait outside, or would you like my help?"
"I'll be fine," Faust said flatly, and he swore he heard her giggle as she walked back toward the door and closed it behind her. He shook his head, making a mental note to try to figure her out later, and dressed quickly. Despite his request for a tailor over a week ago, today he dressed in the standard military-style clothes and cape. He had to show them that he was their fuhrer.
Luchs fell into step beside him as he strode out of his room, and Tiger joined them at the end of the hall. She looked up at him as they headed toward the command center.
"Faust-sama! Nobody's come this way," she said with a proud smile. "Panther is down the hall, she drew for the first defense."
"Good," Faust said with a nod, "thank you. When did this start?"
"Less than ten minutes ago, Faust-sama," Luchs said. "I picked up something from the control room a few hours before sunrise, someone called in to report unusual movement outside the palace. Before any of the palace guard could get together, the groups of the army came together and started to rush." Her eyes glowed blue again for a moment, then she said, "It seems that they'll break down the gates in another seven minutes."
Faust glowered. He knew that he could get either to the command center or to the throne room by then, but not both. "We can stop this," he said. "Come on."
"Yes, Faust-sama," the two marionettes said in unison.
They turned down the wide, dark hallway, and before they'd gone halfway, the sound of tromping boots came from in front of them. Luchs and Tiger immediately moved in front of Faust. Tiger drew a unusual kind of whip with a curved guard from her belt, and small throwing blades snapped into place between Luchs's fingers.
"Don't kill them," Faust said as a dozen Gartlant soldiers started marching toward them. He smiled grimly. "Leave them alive to stand trial."
The battle was as brief as it was merciless. Tiger and Luchs, after putting away their weapons, beat the Gartlant soldiers into the floor one by one. One straggler attempted to run away down the hall, but as Faust watched, Panther leaped out of a connecting hallway at the intersection and slammed him into a wall. She turned to look at Faust and the others as the man slumped to the floor.
Panther's upper lip curled. "Faust-sama was in danger, and you didn't call for me?"
"He was in no danger," Luchs said smoothly. Faust couldn't see her face, but he knew she had to be smiling.
"We need to get to the control room," Faust said, interrupting them. It was amusing to watch, but they didn't have time for the two marionettes to fight it out. Panther gave him a smart salute and a wide grin, then fell into step with the others, and the four of them headed toward the command room. He would take care of this, Faust thought, and he'd do it now.
"Why aren't the palace marionettes holding them back?" Faust asked, partly to himself. "They should be more than enough to deal with an army."
"I haven't seen any of them," Panther said, gritting her teeth. "Can we find who did this and kill him, Faust-sama?"
"Maybe," Faust said darkly, then watched Panther smile again. "First, I want to get the marionettes to stop the army outside, they can do it without hurting any of them. Then we'll find out who was just following orders and who needs to be hurt."
"But wouldn't that be all of them, if they're trying to break in, Faust-sama?" Tiger asked.
Faust shook his head. "Luchs, they're organized, aren't they? This wasn't just the army leading a charge?"
"From what I can tell, Faust-sama," Luchs said, "this was an organized movement. Their attack pattern is a traditional one."
"Hah!" Faust grinned, though the marionettes gave him curious looks. "Just what I thought. Look, I studied the ways of war when I was growing up, the old man said I had to. Anyway, this isn't the kind of thing that the soldiers organize by themselves." He turned down another hallway. They were nearly to the control room. "No, one of the officers started this. Someone got the troops all riled up, and said that they were going to take back Gartlant or something like that. It's happened before, back in the reign of Faust the Fourth."
"Heh," Panther chuckled. "How did he deal with it?"
"Killed everyone involved," Faust said with a shrug. "But that's not my style."
They turned the corner to the hall that ended with the control room, and suddenly the marionettes snapped their arms out, blocking Faust from entering the hall. Clouds of green gas floated along the floor, drifting and billowing in the cold air from the command center. Luchs's eyes glowed for a moment, then she said, "Sleeping gas. It's inert now."
Faust frowned deeply. "Then let's go find out who's responsible," he said, "and fix this problem."
He strode down the hall, the marionettes both at his side and in front of him, keeping an eye out for any danger. The clouds of green gas were still pouring out of the room, but when they cleared, the chairs of the command room became visible. There were men slumped in the chairs or sprawled out on the floor, unconscious. Only one chair was occupied, by a man who was wearing a gas mask and typing frantically at a keyboard.
"Look, Faust-sama!" Panther said, cracking her knuckles. "A problem!"
"Get him," Faust said, though Panther was already halfway to the chair. Three seconds later, the man was flat on his stomach with three limbs pinned and his gas mask halfway off. Faust couldn't help grinning at that. He then turned to Tiger and said, "Check on the others, make sure they're still alive."
"Yes, Faust-sama," she said, and stepped away.
Faust walked over to the pinned man, pulled his mask the rest of the way off, and stomped his boot right next to the other man's ear. "You have betrayed your fuhrer and your country," he said, letting anger seep into his voice, "but if you tell me who's responsible for this and what you're doing in here, I might be kinder when it comes to your punishment."
"I . . . I. . . ." The man's jaw quivered, and he looked ready to start crying.
Faust grumbled. Whoever planned this couldn't be all that much of a threat if someone like this was in charge of something as crucial as taking over the control room. Always use the best man for the job; he'd read that in the treatises about the arts of war. But that kind of lecture could wait. He bent toward the man, and said, "Tell me. Now."
"I don't know who's in charge, fuhrer!" the man blurted. "I just got the order last night. My commanding officer said told me not to ask questions."
"Then you'll be glad to answer some," Faust said flatly. "What were you doing here?"
"Turning off the combat marionettes, fuhrer," the soldier whined. "I had to, they told me it was important or else the plan wouldn't work." He seemed utterly focused on Faust's boot.
"They were right," Faust said through his teeth. "Luchs!"
"Yes, Faust-sama?" she answered from his side.
"Get the combat marionettes going again," he said, "and tell me what's happening at the front gates. I want the marionettes at the gates and ready to subdue anyone who breaks in." He looked down at the soldier again as Luchs got to work. "Keep talking."
"All I heard was that one of the generals was planning to throw you out," the soldier said, his voice quivering. "It's been whispered around the barracks for the past week or so. Some people said that it wouldn't work, others said that we shouldn't, but a lot of people who were still in the army thought it was a good idea."
"And you were forced into it? Or did you go willingly?"
"I . . . I was just following orders, fuhrer!"
"Orders that go against your fuhrer," Faust said, slowly and deliberately lowering his head to be near the soldier's, "are treason. You'll be dealt with, just like the others." He straightened, and turned to Luchs. "How does it look outside?"
"Better than it did a moment ago, Faust-sama," Luchs said, then turned to him and smiled. "The combat marionettes are helping the soldiers inside, and a regiment of them just moved outside from the roof. They should be intercepting the men at the gates right about now."
Faust looked to the screen, and watched as a massive group of red-haired battle sabers descended upon the crowd of soldiers at the gate. There were flashes of blue among the dark uniforms, the marionettes using the tasers that Hess had added to them by Faust's orders. Many of the soldiers tried to flee, but in about two minutes, the marionettes had the entire lot of them taken down.
"Excellent," Faust said with a grin. "Give them orders, from me, to round up the traitors and have them imprisoned. We'll deal with them later." He stopped smiling, and narrowed his eyes. "Luchs, get me cameras all over the palace. I want to see who's waiting around looking like they're expecting something to happen."
"Who do you think planned this, Faust-sama?" Panther asked, planting her boot on the soldier's back even though he'd shown no sign of wanting to move.
"One of the generals, as he said," Faust said. "See if you can get the generals on screen also, Luchs."
A moment later, all the screens in the command room lit up, showing the palace almost in its entirety. Most of the rooms held sleeping people, though some were empty, and Faust took note of those. The activity outside the front gate had died down, and there were still soldiers standing guard inside the front gate; probably awaiting orders, he thought. He would have to see about rewarding them for remaining faithful to their country. He strode over to the monitors that showed the generals, then stopped.
Faust cursed. "I shouldn't be surprised," he said, then turned to the marionettes. "Come on," he said, then strode for the door, his cape billowing behind him.
"Where are we going, Faust-sama?" Tiger asked as she fell into step next to him.
"The throne room."
Faust kept a constant glower on his face as he strode down the high-ceilinged chamber that led to the throne room. He should have seen this coming, he thought. For all the studying he'd done, for everything that he'd read and all the history he'd slogged through, he should have realized what would happen if he made such massive changes in the way the country works so soon. If he'd just taken a moment to interpret history. . . . He shook his head. He'd done something stupid, but there was nothing he could do about it now. What he could do was stop the rest of the would-be upstart's plans and bring the man down.
The doors to the throne room, ten feet tall and emblazoned with a gold-outlined symbol of Gartlant, stood closed as Faust approached. Panther started to reach for them as soon as she was close enough, but Faust raised a hand to stop her.
"Luchs," Faust said, "can you tell if there's anyone on the other side of the door?"
Luchs's eyes glowed blue for a moment, then she looked up to Faust. "I'm sensing about thirty people inside, Faust-sama. My guess is they're a patrol unit by how they're standing. There's also someone sitting on the throne."
Panther snarled, and held up her hand, the edge of it glowing blue. "Let us take care of them, Faust-sama. They won't touch you."
"I'm not worried about that," Faust said with a small smile. "Take out the men as before, don't kill them. Whoever's on the throne, make sure he can still talk." He stepped back as the three of them grouped in front of him, then said, "Go."
Tiger kicked the doors open, and the four of them stepped into the room, greeted by thirty Gartlant soldiers with guns trained on them. Faust did his best not to flinch.
"You would turn against your fuhrer?" he boomed. "Tiger, Luchs, Panther!"
Luchs and Panther leaped into the fray, while Tiger stayed in front of Faust with her whip, striking out at the soldiers from where she stood. The marionettes moved faster than he'd ever seen before, and none of the soldiers had a chance to train a gun on them, let alone fire. A few moments later, the battle was over. Luchs stood in the middle of the room, looking over the fallen soldiers, while Panther jumped up to the throne. She was standing in front of whoever was sitting there, but as Faust watched, her hand snapped to one side, knocking a gun away. She reached for the throne, turned, and hurled General Goddel into the center of the room, where he landed on a pile of unconscious soldiers.
"Goddel," Faust said calmly. "I'm really not surprised."
"Fuhrer," Goddel said weakly.
"Can I kill him, Faust-sama?" Panther asked, looking eager to do just that.
"Not yet," Faust said, then strode toward Goddel and planted his boot next to the other man's head, just as he'd done with the soldier in the control room. "You have a lot of explaining to do, Goddel. Now start talking or Panther gets to kill you."
Goddel pulled himself into a kneeling position, and actually laughed, then cried out as Panther pulled his arms behind his back and held them there. "You're a fool, Faust. Did you really think that you could get rid of most of the army and still lead the country? I thought you'd studied." His expression turned serious. "Countries that have great armies need strong leaders. You're weaker than Faust IX, so your reign ends today."
"Really," Faust said, drawing out the word. "I'm curious, Goddel. What makes you say that?"
"I've spent my whole life watching Faust, seeing what it means to be Faust, so I knew how you'd react. How you got those insipid ideas, I don't know, but I knew that you'd come right to the throne if it was threatened. While you've been getting here, the army - under my control, of course - has breached the gates and taken over the palace. More men than even your marionettes can deal with will be here any moment." Goddel struggled against Panther's grip again, still glaring up at Faust.
Faust said nothing, but leaned back on one leg as though he was waiting for something. He glanced down to his wrist, even though he wasn't wearing a watch, then yawned a moment later. When Goddel started to look nervous, Faust did his best to act like he'd just remembered something.
"Ah, that's right. I had Luchs take control of the palace's sabers about five minutes ago. Your men outside the gate were defeated about . . . three minutes ago." He started to grin as Goddel's mouth dropped open. "I've studied too, Goddel, probably more than you, because the old man said I had to. Tell me, do you know what the main difference is between how Gartlant's succession works and how they do it in other countries?" Faust started to approach the throne, and continued when Goddel didn't say anything. "Gartlant is the only country that forces the memories of its previous rulers into the new cloned child who's going to rule. But you see," he continued, then paused at the short flight of stairs that led to the throne, "Gartlant stopped doing that a while ago. Do you know how long?"
"H-how long ago?" Goddel asked. He had gone completely pale.
"Oh, about seven years." Faust grinned at Goddel, this time going for the evil effect. By the look on the general's face, it seemed to be working. "You see, I'm not the Faust you knew. I'm the one who's going to make Gartlant the greatest nation on Terra II." He reached down and grabbed the front of Goddel's uniform, and tore off the symbols of rank the general wore. He then ascended the stairs to the throne, Luchs and Tiger at his side. He turned to glare down at Goddel, whom Panther turned to face Faust, and said, "And I'm going to do it without a war. Pity you won't be around to see it.
"Tiger! Luchs! Panther!"
"Yes, Faust-sama!" the three marionettes said in unison.
"See to it that Goddel is imprisoned, he'll be put on trial later," Faust said with a grim smile, then seated himself on his throne. "Then send an announcement across the city. I'll be giving a speech today."
Faust stood behind a podium again, this time before a crowd of all the people of Gartlant's capital city. For the first time in recent history, the gates had been thrown open, and the populace of Gartlant had been let into the palace, into the great chamber that led to the throne room, to hear a speech by their fuhrer. He could see surprise on many of their faces, mostly those who had lived their entire lives under Faust IX and expected to be beaten down. Some of the younger men, though, were gazing around as though they had never seen such a place, and he knew that it was true. He smiled to himself. This was where things would start changing. This was where he was going to prove to the old man that the old ways were wrong.
"People of Gartlant," he began, raising his hands for silence over the murmuring crowd, "I stand before you with news of the future. Of your future, of our future, of Gartlant's future." Sure, he thought, it was a formal and boring beginning, but it set him up for what he had to say. And it would probably surprise the older men to hear a Faust talking about 'our future.'
"I know that many of you have lived your lives under the thumb of my predecessor, the stodgy old man known as Faust the Ninth." He paused, and chuckled at the expressions he could see and the whispers that crossed the crowd. "Yes, I know, that's not what you expected to hear from me. But I'm not like him, and I'm not going to be doing things the way he did." That enough was worth a cheer, he thought, but nobody said a thing. He shrugged. They probably weren't used to cheering at anything that Faust said.
"I grew up reading histories, stories about all of Terra II, about the brave men who crashed here from space and turned this planet into our new home. And one thing struck me with everything I read: Gartlant was the only country that treated its people like they were worth less than the marionettes our ancestors created. I don't know how this started, but I'm telling you now that it ends. Right now.
"I want to change things - for Gartlant, for you, and yes, for myself. I'm sure that you've noticed that your daily rations have been increased." He paused, and chuckled as a few people cheered. "Yes, I did that, it wasn't a mistake in the programming. But I don't think you should have to stand around a truck all day to get your food."
Faust held out his hand, and gestured to the tall man with straight brown hair who was standing off to the left. Tiger, Luchs, and Panther, of course, stood at his right. "This is Lucius Urmanov, he's from Romana, and he's an economist. He's going to be helping me get Gartlant's economy going, so that we can create jobs for all of you." Faust pointed out at the crowd, tracing from one side to the other. "I want to make Gartlant the greatest nation on Terra II, and I want each and every one of you to be proud to live here, to work here, to call Gartlant your home!"
They did cheer at that, and Faust stood taller. That was what he'd been wanting to say, and the cheer was what he'd been waiting to hear. He doubted anyone but the army had ever cheered Faust the Ninth. He could almost see the old man's face in his mind, and he wanted to laugh.
"My people," he continued, "I'm not going to lie to you and say that it'll be easy. We have a rough road ahead of us. But I think we can do this. I want to give all of you a chance, and by doing that, I want to give Gartlant a chance. If you are with me. . . ." He took the microphone in hand and turned to the giant flag of Gartlant that hung behind him, moved from where the previous Fausts had given speeches to the military. "If you are with me, then salute the flag of your home country . . . not because you have to, but because you want to."
He saluted, then glanced over his shoulder. Nearly everybody was holding up their right hands, and a great many of them were grinning right at him. This was what he had been waiting for, he thought; this was what it should mean to be a leader. This was his nation, these were his people, and he would not let them down.