The BridgeBook IV: To Qwell the Tideby euhal allen |
Table of Contents Chapter 5, part 1 appears in this issue. |
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Chapter 5: The Great Tragedy part 2 of 3 |
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Time erases, or at least softens, memories, and both parts of the Qwell, traveling different paths, found the momentous happenings of their past becoming shadowy and vague. The Qwell’Na sought ever more the ways of the Manuals and the understanding of the mind, while the Qwell’Di concentrated on becoming ever more powerful, ever greater in their own eyes.
On a far-away world, when a small but significant people spoke of such things they would use the word hubris. And as always, no matter where one is and no matter what word one uses to speak of such things, hubris is always a forebearer of trouble. So it was with the Qwell’Di.
Things shifted faster with the new language. Since their failure to cleanse the universe of their Qwell’Na relatives, it was decided that their common language was a mistake, and a new one was born: Di. Soon they relegated all things dealing with the Qwell into a shadowed past and became the Di Dzho, the Great People. Nowhere in their new language would one find the words of the Manuals, or the Learned Ones, or the best of the Family Heads.
Now the words of Zornat consumed them. New schools were dedicated to the teachings, the poisons of Zornat. In them they were taught that they were the Di Dzho, the Great People, the only people.
To others they did not give a word, not one of their own words, for none were worth one of the words of the Di Dzho. Those they called the Skeltz, Qwell for ‘vermin’. A vermin word from a vermin people. It was all that those who were not Di Dzho deserved.
Sensors first picked up the broadcasts of the Kranshi just as the Di Dzho were completing the first of their interstellar bases some fourteen light-years out from their home system. Spy ships were sent to see what kind of people these Kranshi were. The report came back that though there were some scientific developments that would be useful to the Di Dzho, they were otherwise Skeltz and could be disposed of without too much trouble to the fleet.
The terrible fleet of the Di Dzho swept down on the Kranshi with an merciless barrage of weapons and villainy. It was only by a miracle that two Kranshi ships packed with families on tour of the far side of the system, escaped at the first sign of the defeat of their own vessels. They could not go home; there was no home to go to. Their only hope was to head out to the nearby systems, but that proved futile for there were none near that were habitable for them.
They continued on for months, getting near the end of their food, when they picked up media reports from some systems ahead of them. Going very slowly and monitoring the media very closely, they began to be able to translate the media reports from the systems they were headed for. Those systems, five in all, were all members of a Galactic Council and showed no sign of violence and piracy.
Having no other hope, and now being somewhat fluent in the Common tongue, they began to broadcast a distress call, knowing that such a call would arouse compassion instead of fear.
At first those of the Galactic Council thought they were getting calls from their own exploration ships, but some of the language was not quite right and they soon realized that they were dealing with a race as yet unknown. So they went out armed.
When they found the two Kranshi ships and saw how damaged they were their caution turned to compassion, and they soon had the survivors of the attack on their system in medical facilities and places of rest. As they tended to their new charges they heard the story of the attacks on the Kranshi and, to back them up, they viewed the media recordings.
Seeing that the attacks were an obvious surprise and mercilessly pressed until the Kranshi were destroyed, they now realized that there was a need for a larger fleet. The recording, played incessantly as media officials often have it done, caused the inhabitants of the five systems to strengthen the Galactic Council into more of a government instead of a trading compact. All could see that if these killers came to their part of space, only unity and strength could possibly stop them.
Scouts were sent out in the direction the Kranshi ships had come. Scouts were sent out in other directions also, just in case. Communication buoys were camouflaged as simple, small asteroids and packed with passive sensors so as to sound a warning should the enemy come their way.
In these trips out to the fringes of their systems they encountered a number of other races. Contact was attempted with each and those that responded were shown the recordings of the massacre of the Kranshi and offered alliance with the Galactic Council. Often the alliance was good in both ways, for a great many technological secrets were passed back and forth in attempts to make the defensive fleet that the Galactic Council was constructing as strong as possible.
Those races that did not want contact were left alone and not bothered at that time. The enemy was not yet in the area of the Galactic Council, and those races were in no immediate danger. Later, when the pirates did come, their attitude might change and then they could be welcomed into the Council.
The two Kranshi’s voyage logs were studied carefully to see where their home planet had been and, finally, the Council scientists were able to pinpoint the star that had been theirs. Looking at the distance that separated them those scientist made a guess that the Council worlds had between forty and seventy years to get ready. Opting, naturally, for the shorter period, the Council planned to have their fleet operational in thirty years so that they could train their crews and test their weapons for some time before they might meet their enemy.
Their guess was wrong by a decade. The fleet was just finally gaining its full strength and was crewed with relatively new recruits when the first contact was made. It was then that they encountered a single ship exploring the far outer reaches of the territory that the Council had decided to defend. In trying to make contact with them they heard that single word, Skeltz, as the enemy ship, greatly outnumbered, fired on them and then turned tail and ran. All of their ships fired back and the combined firepower of the Council’s ships overwhelmed the shields of the Skeltz ship and it was destroyed.
The fleet, victorious in their first contact, sent a message drone back to the Galactic Council and then ordered a squadron of seven ships to search in the direction that the Skeltz ship was heading when it was destroyed. The Council was ecstatic when the message drone came, and the fleet was discouraged when the squadron of ships disappeared without a trace.
News of the disappearance of the squadron soon sobered up the Council, and more funds were immediately appropriated to build more ships. The Council, now having twelve members and more shipyards, began to pour more efforts and resources into a fleet that would have grown to five times its size at the first contact with the Skeltz had not so many of them been destroyed by the enemy’s superior weapons.
The only thing that kept the Skeltz back was the sheer number of ships that were thrown at them. Battles were won with the Skeltz, if you could call it winning, only when they were outnumbered at least seven to one. And then they still always destroyed at least three ships for every one of theirs lost.
Desperate for an answer, the Council commissioned research into new weapons that could be brought online quickly. It did not matter. The loss ratio was still a minimum of three to one. Often, when the fleets were somewhat equal in size the Council was fortunate if any of their ships survived long enough to flee.
All of this was watched by the Qwell’Na. To see their own people, for — whatever the Qwell’Di called themselves and whatever new language they spoke — they were still of Qwell stock, and they were still bringing shame on their far brothers. They were still seeking to destroy those that could not defend themselves, mercilessly murdering any survivor of any ship only partially destroyed.
Then the debates started over. Yes, they had seen, in the cruelty of their brothers, Ferenets fly, and they had hid and made themselves safe. The problem that the Galactic Council had was a problem they needed to handle themselves. Did anyone help the Rossal when it was caught by the Ferenet?
Others spoke in different words. Farnets and Rossals were animals living by the rules of animals. It was not a thing of pride or honor for their people to act as animals in tearing their prey. The Qwell’Di, in their barbarism, in their reasoning, in their villainy, were bringing shame on all of their people. The Qwell’Na could stop them and should. Did not the Manuals say that “To die in protecting the weak is to die with honor?” Would that not also mean that to live and protect the weak was also honorable?
The others answered back, “They are our brothers in the flesh, our Family; how could we bear the shame in destroying them? To stop them you must destroy them and leave, as they themselves do, no one breathing. We did not destroy them to save our own lives. We would have let them destroy us rather than kill Family. If this is true, how can we justify destroying them for others who are not Family?”
Again it was said, “We could not destroy them to save ourselves because we were not the weak. Our minds were stronger. Our power was greater. Our numbers were greater. We needed no protection. Those now being attacked are weak. There are twenty races in the area of the Galactic Council. All of them are weaker, even put together, than the Qwell’Di. Is not the destruction of that many peoples, when it can be prevented, of greater shame than the just destruction of Family that has become as beasts?”
On and on went the debates. On and on went the battles out in the galaxy. Closer and closer came the Qwell’Di to the systems of the Galactic Council. It could not be long now before it was over and the Galactic Council would be no more.
Then, a breakthrough was announced by the Galactic Council. They had discovered a way to englobe a system in a force shield. If they could only englobe the Skeltz home world and destroy their ability to replace their losses in ships and crews then, as long as they could continue to build their ships at the present pace they could eventually, with sheer numbers, destroy the enemy fleets.
The problem was how to get through the enemy fleet to the Skeltz home world and how to last long enough to set up the field. For this effort the Galactic Council diverted every possible resource into making a huge number of ships and drafted whole towns to crew them. It had to be done, even though most of those ships and crews would never come back.
This news gave those Qwell’Na who argued to stop their brothers a new argument. They would not have to destroy their brothers, only imprison them in their own system. True, they would have to destroy the ships still out of that system, but that was only a few of the Qwell’Di. The majority would still be able to live their lives in their own system, on their own world.
The debate became heated. There was now anger in the words of each side. The decision had to be made between the two shames. Which one would have to be endured in order to escape the burden of the other?
It was then that Jerdal, the First Head of the Family Heads was given the assignment to decide. This was lawful in the Families. When a decision was to be made and the Family Heads could not agree on the direction of the decision, then he who was First Head could be commanded to make that decision. It had not happened very many times, but those times that it had happened it had worked out well.
So, the ships went. They went with Doors to breach the Skeltz ships and place large nuclear devices on them. The resulting destruction would vaporize the enemy ships and the bodies of their crews. They would die in their ships and there would not be the shame of their bodies being seen. At least that courtesy could be done for them.
The Galactic Council’s fleet was in another hopeless battle when the Qwell’Na ships appeared seemingly out of nowhere and the Skeltz ships started disappearing in balls of nuclear fire. Soon they had all been destroyed, and the new allies, the Qwell’Na, escorted the englobing fleet to the home system of the Skeltz and guarded it until the system was englobed. Then they went in search of the rest of the Skeltz ships. Those they found they destroyed; the others could not be found because, in the shame of defeat, they had self-destructed.
While this was happening, the Qwell’Na, having already deciding not to reveal the true position of Qwell, created a sham civilization on a substitute planet nearer to but still outside of Council space. It was dubbed by the people of Qwell as Qwell Minor and it became the recognized world that joined the Galactic Council.
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In the englobed system, on Di, the shame of defeat was devastating. The ships were destroyed, and no one knew how it had been done or who this new enemy was. That is, no one knew until a small, damaged scout ship, limped back to the home planet. It was the only ship that had survived the catastrophe and then only because its size had allowed it to hide among the asteroids in one of the systems where the Di Dzho ships were destroyed.
Then, when the enemy was gone, it had limped back to the home system and arrived just prior to the englobement. Far out in the system, with its communication systems inoperable, it had taken days to make the journey to where it could be detected and the crew rescued. They brought with them recordings of their new enemy.
The recordings showed that the new enemy was the long-lost Qwell’Na. They had never changed the design of their ships in all these generations. At least not on the outside. The weapons they carried, whatever they were, were a change. Then, remembering the power they had shown in removing Qwell from their grasp they realized that the power they had shown then was still with them.
Now, knowing who it was that had done this to them, and seeing the shame that it had brought upon them, the Di Dzho decided on their revenge. Already the Qwell’Na would be feeling distress because they had destroyed so many of their brothers. They would tell themselves that they had done it for some weak, noble reason. They would comfort themselves that their ‘brothers’ on Di would be able to live their lives out and, because of their defeat, would have learned their lesson.
That could not be. The shame they had now must become a burden that would crush them. They would make the shame of the Qwell’Na become so great that they would never be able to hold their heads high again.
The great ceremony was carefully planned. The radioactive source that would poison them was detonated in a place where the winds would carry its deadly matter quickly to all parts of the world. Then, as the radioactivity spread around the planet, the Di Dzho came out into the roadways and stood under the poison. The whole population died in public, leaving their bodies lying out in the open to rot.
They died knowing that some day the Qwell’Na would come to see if they were faring well and if they could bring them back into the fold. They knew that when that happened the shock of their answer would forever burden the Qwell’Na with a guilt that could never be cleansed.
Copyright © 2005 by euhal allen
