Chapter 42
Nancy
What If There Was Never a Glider
"We're all set," Martin motions to Nancy. "Your assistants know to leave you alone for now, right?"
"Yes, we are good for now," She says quietly. "If they need Jack or I, they will reach out to me." Nancy holds up her device as she sits down next to Jack. Martin had come down looking unhappy and this is making her nervous. Is there a problem for the Fifth Column or new progress perhaps.
Martin brings the visual from his meeting this morning with the renown Bofael of Ski. Quietly they watch the visual, when it ends she looks at both Martin and Jack. Both seem engrossed in the lecture. Nancy shakes her head and speaks deeply in a displeased tone. "I thought we were going to talk about the progress of the Fifth Column or some issue. This is crap, Earth water is better than any other water is stupid."
"Nancy, Nancy, try to understand." Martin's tone seems almost condescending. "They are going to take all of Earth's water and leave these people with nothing. They are going to take them as food until our planet is able to sustain itself. We need to change are focus somewhat. Jack understands."
"Yes, yes I get it." Jack places a hand on her shoulder for a moment, "Look this is more than us building a resistance on the ships and putting a plan in place for our return to Sullam Voe. These people are being put in harm's way. We must do something, if we don't do something we will be as bad as the Regime."
She is not happy, she can see that Martin is now trying to change the course of their resistance work. "The idea of building the resistance here away from home gives us the ability to do more work and planning here; with shall I say more freedom. I thought the idea was that we take ships and fight the Regime, we need the same tools to fight as the Regime has. Water will no longer be a question once we stand-up to the Great One. We go to meteorites and mine water. We do this quickly and this whole Earth business is done with. Yes, ships will be here and can easily return to fight us, but we will be prepared. Those young people left behind, well if the plan is to leave them with a ship then they can decide for themselves to stay or leave. We must focus on our goal. This is not for Earth, this is for our world, our people who are dying. Earth will be fine as we the Fifth Column a division of our resistance movement at home came to defeat the Regime. You see this lecture and you want to turn everything upside down?"
Martin stares at her for a moment, "We do what is right. We are better than the Regime." He and Jack appear to ignore her and go into a discussion on what they should do, such as including humans and if so how to go about doing that.
Her device sounds and she looks at it and casually stands. "Well, they need help up front. Sounds like you two know better then me. . .gosh, just a woman." Nancy then smiles and turns to leave.
"Oh, don't be like that, you're fine. We appreciate your feedback." Jack tries to sound nonchalant, but you can see he is nervous on her reaction. "Come right back. You have been with this since the beginning."
"I am sorry if I came across. . .I don't know," Martin raises his hands to emphasis his words, "Sanctimonious, I guess. What matters to me most is our people. I swear Nancy. We can't cause this harm to these innocent people when we know it is on the table so to speak."
She gives a sickly smile that fools no one, "Of course. I am always with you, but I just want to ensure that we have the same goals." Nancy waves a hand, "Don't worry about it. Me, being sensitive. Look I gotta go they are waiting for me." Then walking out the door she turns for a moment and gives a troubled look. This is all changing and she is not sure if she is ready for this change.
…...
Later that day when she and Jack are alone Nancy asks him if they can go to the special room. Once they enter she snaps, "Don't be stupid, stupid!" She knows she has had enough and is going to express herself if he likes it or not. "We had a goal before we even left home. We have been working on this for a very long time. I have a sister and a niece on that apparently planet of no consequence. He is willing to see our people die in order to protect the humans."
Jack is smirking when he holds a hand up for her to stop talking. "You are a wonderful woman. I know that you don't want harm to come to the humans. However, Martin is right. We can't destroy this planet in order to save ours."
"What. . .the," Nancy utters. She can barely believe this, something is wrong. Jack is believing the lecture they had watched with Martin. "Earth water is not any better than any water. That chemist was likely forced to say what he said. Remember, Regime! We get the water on these ships and if Martin is correct we go home. Rather we begin to travel home as under the Regime, but then we take ships. Wish I could say all of them, but we need to fight. If we find we cannot take the ships then we take over the water tanks on each of the ships and the water gets dropped on our home world, our home. If we allow the Regime to take the water you know what is going to happen. It is going to be a tool used to bring everyone to do as they are directed to do, if they don't want to die. We must fight even if we die. If all goes the way it should then either they will bring the ships back or make a decision on what they will do; stay on Earth or comply with the new government. We must try, if we don't most of our people will die to give the Regime whatever fantasy they have running around in their heads. Or rather the one the Great. . .No, his name is Mihee."
Jack looks at her and for a long moment saying nothing. Finally he shakes his head, "What you are saying is we leave humans to suffer under the Regime. They die so we may live. We are leaving other ships and even if they leave to fight our resistance they will leave the Youth Corp. They are young now, but they will mature and gain experience. They will learn what needs to be done. We could be leaving with real monsters taking over Earth. Youth Corp are not stupid people and they are also very dedicated to Mihee."
"Why," Nancy asks, "The sudden change in you to fight for the cause to save Earth. We are here for our people, our people. You have a brother, his daughter died trying to save lives. Does this not matter to you?" Her dreams of defeating the Regime or at least trying even to the death seem to be disappearing. So many lives to be lost as if they are of no importance. It's not that she doesn't feel for the humans, but it is her people she wishes to save first.
"I know you Nancy, you like Martin and myself do not want to pass evil along to an innocent people. We did this to ourselves, the humans should not have to pay for us paving the way to our own destruction."
"What is wrong with you?" Nancy is glaring at Jack. She stands and begins to pace around the room for a few minutes with Jack quietly watching her. Then she turns, "We know from our studies that Earth is doomed anyway. It won't take much longer and they will follow the same road that we have gone down."
"We believe it will be a hundred and fifty years from now before most of Earth is unlivable. Surely they see what they are doing and will be making further corrections. As Martin explained to me humans tend think much more clearer than we do. They will see it and stop it and make the needed corrections. They were already trying to fix environmental issues before we came here. Their people just don't jump into things without thinking as our people have done."
She begins to speak then pauses, what does she really know of Earth's abilities to protect its environment. Perhaps she was going by the way her people have handled things in their past. Humans did take their time, where as her people did not. Nancy stops her pacing and sits down. "I know that the Dahax evolved before the humans evolved, but the Depol, Ibrea and humans came about the same time if our studies are correct. However, we did manage to launch into things so quickly and recklessly. At least humans took their time." She frowns, did the humans really take their time or did her peoples early and seemly urgent rush to surpass each other keep them from checking themselves before proceeding with each little technical adventure. "Of both human and our people the Whipelli are the youngest, they evolved to be their own people so quickly. They literally are the ones that set us on the path. Funny is it not, evolved quickly and created a glider just as quickly. How could they have had any idea how to do this, it makes no sense."
"You are thinking about how we went from gliders to space craft so quickly and you don't mean the power crystals, am I correct?"
"Yes, we the Depol and the Whipelli went into a race against each other that knew no boundaries. If you say the humans are not that way you are wrong. It will not be long before the human population will experience environmental conditions that will be very dangerous, in fact downright unlivable. You say they will work on this, I think they are as reckless as we are. They are already experiencing an unchecked rise in temperatures, which are going to be causing real health issues for them. Eventually, working outside could be unbearable for them, yet they will ignore it and think those warning them are fools. Humans are simply different colored sirians with head hair."
"Wow!" Jack has a surprised look on his face, "We want to ensure that humans are not destroyed." His look becomes solemn, but the passion is there in his tone. "We are not deserting our goal to help our people and defeat the Regime. No, we just need to redefine what we are doing. You will see, don't worry." He smiles and gives her a reassuring look, "I promise. If Martin were here he would as well. We are going to overthrow the Regime, we will bring water back to our world and with luck; a lot of luck we bring life back to our world."
Looking down for a moment she feels very worried still, "Promise me again. People trust us on the ships and at home to do what we are working towards." Something about Martin, does he still want to make a difference. She just can't let go of it, something is off with Martin.
Jack's sincerity is clear as he says, "I promise. It is sad we can't reach out to those at home, but if we did the Regime may figure it out. When the time is right, we strike. Peace will come back, but it will not be immediately. Still it will come."
"I just got a little worried. I just keep thinking of our world and how I would walk about and see people who didn't have enough vouchers. They would wait an entire day if longer just to get rations due to their lack of vouchers. Sometimes only to be turned away as rations or water had been depleted for the day." She shakes her head, starving people with no water is not good, it has inspired protests and theft from the very ones who were in need. Knowing that in twenty-five years many more will not survive if water is not available to them is completely depressing. Nancy looks down at her hands for a moment and then looks Jack in the eye. "You know what is sadder is when later you go someplace else and there is plenty of food and people are laughing as if nothing is happening. I worry what the Regime may do. . .No, I worry what the Regime may have to do. Yes, it is that bad. Will our new government, if we can get it setup quickly enough, will it be any better?"
He pats her hand and then gives it a quick squeeze. "You are good woman. Don't know, can't look that far ahead. You are right humans are following the same road we ourselves are traveling down. It is if you must go down it and learn the lesson before the road ends and correct the path." Jack suddenly grins, "Yeah, gliders. . .Go figure."
Nancy suddenly smiles, "How did the Whipelli do that. They didn't have a bow and arrow, yet had those small gliders. Seriously, how do you go from a spear to a glider? I remember studying that subject in school and even as a little girl I was amazed."
"Must have surprised Chrickney; no one knows much about him except that he was invading and killing. What is that called in English?"
"Warlord," She states quickly. "Actually, he defeated them the first time. Then the sub-zero weather returned and he and his army left and did not return for sometime. He did leave them by accident, bows and arrows and skirch. They learned to make these weapons and breed the skirch." They both chuckle and then Nancy shakes her head, "It was the second time when Chrickney came to the mountains that he got the surprise. Whipelli gliding over them and dropping oil and now my turn; what is English for motee?"
At first Jack frowns and then smiles, "That would be fireworks. Must have shocked Chrickney when first oil and then the motee is dropped setting them on fire. Then as they run away from that they have yet another surprise. For here come the Whipelli riding skirch and using bows and arrows, all new things that they did not have the first time Chrickney and his army came to invade. Yet they were the providers of the new technology. Wish we had more information on Chrickney; he sounded like a madman."
"Most likely a bit on the crazy side," Nancy says with a smile, then her tone becomes intense as she begins making gestures with her hands, "So my point, here are a people with no bow and arrows. Yet, they figured out how to make a glider on their mountains. Then they quickly update their gliders, learn to ride skirch and use their motee toy as a weapon. Our people are insane, we never take a breath."
Jack flashes a smile. "Yes, Chrickney certainly did start the competition between our people and the Whipelli thousands of years ago. Here is some peace and now here we come to fight; then repeat over and over." He has lost the smile and is shaking his head sadly. "Woefully in the end we the Depol won this competition, but the actuality is we lost."
"Yeah, our rush to space which was to embrace exploration put us on the map with those already traveling out there." Nancy frowns and finds her disappointment mounting. "Our crystals have put a target on our back. With that we have made weapons we should never have made. We should have done it with more thought like the humans I guess."
They just look at each other and finally Jack sighs, "We need to make a change. Nancy, I agree with Martin, humans should not be made to pay such a heavy price because of our urgent need to keep our planet from dying. They are innocent. I want so much for you to be able to continue to contribute to our campaign, but I understand if you can't."
Nancy gives him a smile and now she reaches out and pats his hand and gives a squeeze. "Of course, I am with you. Martin and you are very important to me. I just had to let out my fears."
He nods and from there their conversation moves on to their work and then he leaves. Still she can't let go of the thought that change is coming and it may not be the changes that she can really live with if they come to be. She has no idea why she is worried, the humans do not deserve what is happening to them. However, water needs to go home, if it doesn't in twenty-five to fifty years her world may not exist. What if a glider had never come to be; at least given them time to understand what was happening before moving on to each new weapon.
Chrickney and the gliders, she can't leave the thought alone. Once the mountain people defeated him they were left alone on their mountains to live once again in peace. The Whipelli religion tells them that they are the caretakers of the northern mountains so everything is always centered on protection of the northern mountains. Therefore the clans that had fought Chrickney passed their knowledge of what they had learned to the other clans on breeding and riding skirch, making bows and arrows and most importantly modifications to the glider.
From what little history known of Chrickney they knew that he and then his sons worked hard to replicate the motee weapon the Whipelli had used, but they failed. However, because of his encouragement his sons continued to try and replicate the small thing that could cause so much death and devastation. There was some archaeological records of this and although his sons were unable to do so they did succeed in improving other weapons. Also, his two surviving sons continued their father's path wiping out many other Depol tribes or forcing them to surrender. Again little information, but there were some writings, oral stories and relics that indicated how brutal they had been. Death, slavery or forced to be soldiers was simply the way it was for those defeated. His sons and his people also felt they were fulfilling some prophesy so they felt total devotion in doing what they did no matter the destruction and cruelty.
It was Chrickney's granddaughter NisoMada who decided to reach out to the Whipelli and begin to trade with them. NisoMada was not a stupid woman, there was a great deal more information about her and that she was instrumental in not only the improvement of weapons, but architecture and much more. The records found seemed to indicate she wanted very much to protect her people, but that was her people; for others it was a different story. If they lived outside her empire they were deemed expendable, although most did not know this until she found some reason to turn on them. She could be as cruel as her father and his brother.
Also, like her father she knew about how deadly the motee was. Her plan on getting this weapon was far different than those who had preceded her. The Whipelli had become renown traders and she devised a plan to simply gain their trust by trading with them. When NisoMada came to rule she had already gained the trust of the Whipelli, it was likely an easy task for her to manipulate the mountain people to give away their secret weapon, NisoMada had learned many things while gaining their trust; the Whipelli in many ways simply saw the motee as an object to celebrate weddings, and other events and not a true weapon. They were a very religious people, but for some reason believed in only one god and were very dedicated to the teachings of this god. Peace it turned out was very important to them as well as unity amongst their people and those that came to seek their protection.
The mountain people unlike Chrickney appeared to not be interested in improving or inventing new weapons as it was not in the interest of the peace and unity they believed in. However, they continued using the gliders to bring small amounts of precious metals down to the valley. As time went by their interest in trading expanded and they stopped using gliders and traveled using wheeled vehicles.
Unfortunately, the Whipelli were ignorant of NisoMada's true desire and eventually they gave her what she wanted. They thought she wished to make them for different events and not as weapons. Once her people knew how to make them she then had them improve the motee to be a far more dangerous weapon. NisoMada never saw the ultimate outcome, but her son and daughter did. They used and improved these weapons forcing more Depol tribes under their rule and even terrorized the Dahax who had up until that time were hard to defeat.
NisoMada was not part of the return to the mountains as she had passed away years before, but the Depol warlord at that time did. NisoMada had in some ways modified and further created a prediction or rather a myth that Chrickney had a goal that should be fulfilled. The supposed goal of Chrickney was given to him by the gods or said the archaeological records. Gods who had come long ago in the past and lived among the Depol preparing them for Chrickney's leadership as only his body was gone. Once the goal was completed his physical form would return. Of course, it is now a new story about the ancients and rumors had it that Mihee felt he was the one that the ancients wanted their people to prepare for. It was staggering that even now this should be something that someone would believe; Mihee the Chosen, or something like that.
The new invasion began again against the Whipelli with the thought that they could not be defeated this time. However, even with their new weapons the mountain people always had their glider and whatever new weapon they had stumbled upon or modification to the new Depol weapon used against them. This happened for over a thousand years as they invaded, sometimes they won the battle, but the Whipelli always won the war. Eventually those wars ended and peace came as it did them no good to continue or escalate a war against the mountain people. Trading eventually was more important than waging war with any of the Whipelli clans and peace came to be. Yes, there would be some fraction with one of the clans from time to time, but generally the issue would be resolved. Two hundred years ago technology needed a power source, the mountain people had power crystals and were very willing to trade them. No, war was worth the loss of the crystals. Small towns below the mountains that saw themselves as part of the clans grew larger and larger with factories and an economy that allowed for even more trading, this was good for Depol businesses and kept their people working. Those crystals gave them a power no one had on any world that they are aware of.
Then one hundred years ago the government wanted all to join this new democracy of the people and this included the Whipelli, but all of the clans refused to join this new government. However, her people could not leave the mountains alone as the idea of being in control of the crystals was a driving force to have them join this new world government. The escalated war of technology with the Whipelli got her people into space long before they should ever have done so. Nancy knew that many on her world felt they were not ready for this expansion. What they were learning was that their people were not a mature species. From what Nancy sees now that their ships have arrived to Earth, their maturity is most certainly no better than the humans.
However, it is now too late to stop space exploration and in order to continue space travel they need the power crystals. Nancy finds she is grinding her teeth at the thought of fusion engines. So many falsehoods; all know that ice and minerals can be easily mined on meteorites. However, it appears that their Great Leader wins again as now even Martin and Jack believe the new lies due to the false lecture they heard this morning. Yeah, she is just a woman. She shakes her head, men certainly can be idiots.
As for trying to bring the Whipelli into their democracy it failed each time they tried. The mountain peoples refusal to join became a thorn that the government wanted gone and a plan was devised to ensure they did join. The plan was to create false intelligence findings and push the propaganda that the Whipelli were working to invade the lands of Unified Lands of the People with a weapon so deadly it would destroy any city they used it against. They ensured that outrage took over and that the people demanded that the mountain people be dealt with. What was true was that they were the ones with the weapon; a biochemical had been created, one that would kill only the Whipelli. This weapon had taken nearly fifty years to create. Once completed false information was fed to the populace. How did they know this, Mihee had found out and during his takeover he revealed what he found.
Just learning this in school was sad, for the Whipelli were known only as traders and religious zealots who thought they had evolved to protect the mountains. Their clan community kept them only to themselves, although in the valley's below the mountains you could find Ibrea and Depol's cities of those who wished to be separate from the UL government. The non-Whipelli would farm, work in factories and do other work that the Whipelli needed to have done. In return the non-Whipelli were protected and were included in the sharing of food, medical, housing and of course protection, besides their payments for work done. It was in fact a government that was and had worked for thousands of years. Certainly there was controversy and struggles between clans, but they had managed to keep their community life and settle disputes quickly. Their clan leaders and council held community meetings and ensured that changes were made when necessary. There was nothing that the Whipelli saw as a reason to make a change in the way they cared for the northern mountains and valleys below them.
When the mountain people refused for the last time to join Unified Lands of the People or UL as it was called. This is when the biochemical was dropped on one of the mountain clans, supposedly to stop the Whipelli invasion; this forced all of the clans to finally join the UL. Most of the mountain clan in which the poison as the Whipelli called it did die, but some did survive. Due to the open gene of the Whipelli though they passed some of this on to their children, the second generation. These children had children; these were the third generation whose gene's fully adapted and they would not die from that particular poison again. However, things were not good for the second generation and they died due to this poison most at a young age. Testing has shown that the third generation even though they may have something of this chemical within them have adapted and should be fine as well as their children. It makes her wince, what if a Whipelli adapts this chemical and use it against her people the Depol in an act of vengeance or fear. They could do this now on Avena and no one at home would know until it was to late. Nancy shivers at the thought of dying from some horrible death due to biochemical where each breath would be like small sharp pins running through you. You would likely be thankful if the death came quickly. Her people really are monsters. Because of the glider it sent her people down a path that was dark and cruel as far as she is concerned. Still there were many peaceful times on her world. There wasn't always some war of technology going on at all times. She finds herself frowning, maybe Martin is correct the humans are a much better people than theirs. Her peoples rush to advance technology had also destroyed their environment and now water was the most important commodity they had. Maybe it is the price you pay for the reckless advancement of your technology. The same thoughts keep coming to her.
Then again the humans weren't known as peaceful either. World War One and Two were not simple wars; nor was the mass killing of their indigenous people. Humans were no better than her people no matter what Martin and Jack thought. The humans may not have accelerated their technology in a mad rush as her people had done, but they are on their way to doing so. Nancy sighs, she is just one person and who will care about her fears. Martin is a good leader, but he has stagnated on advancing the plan and she is finding he lacks the ability to think; as humans would say, outside the box. Neither he nor Jack are sadly inspiring leaders. She worries, can they and will they make quick decisive decisions when needed and be able to count on immediate loyalty from the others trying to end the Regime. Nancy shrugs, it matters not she will follow them because they believe in doing what is right and the darkness her people have been plunged into must end.
It makes her ponder, her people are so advanced in some areas. Yet, in other areas they are not any more advanced than humans. With a shrug she decides it is time to eat a couple of mice and let all of these dark thoughts go. She tells herself to stop thinking about how do you go from bow and arrow to space travel so quickly; her people are not ready for this. Like their human counterparts they should have been much slower in this race to space. Sometimes she wonders about old artifacts and odd stories of ancients guiding her people to move much faster; could this be true. What could ancients gain from forcing a new species into doing this. As she leaves to go eat, she shakes her head. 'Stupid gliders, without gliders so early in our history; we would have taken our time to learn. If ancients, why put gliders in the hands of the youngest of her people and then ensure that another invades them so they stumbled into things they had not even thought of. This causing a technological race that should not have happened for a few thousand years. Well things may have been better if gliders had not come so soon. What if?'