The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

means random. He had ample intelligence, and knew with positive certainty that the prisoners accepted Pindor as something of their ‘spiritual guide.’ But he had hatched a deeper plan. Naturally, he did not count on that plan alone being enough to convince Acustro of its rightness. On the contrary, he wanted to use the Philosopher as a scapegoat to provoke a corresponding reaction in the other prisoners and predispose them to confess even unrepentant sins in order to get rid of him. What even they didn't know, including Pindor himself, was that Viar, as the Deputy Warden of the colony, had something of his own intelligence. It worked flawlessly, some of its operations, even Acustro himself was unaware of. Viar had managed to get his hands on the Philosopher's file and was fully aware that he was the only prisoner in the colony who had been convicted for non-political reasons. This ‘minor’ fact of his autobiography had remained hidden from the other prisoners. The assistant warden planned to take this trump card and, allegedly by accident, through his own henchmen among the prisoners, to throw them a ‘fly’, thus hoping to discredit him in their eyes. That is, he was going to ‘hit two birds with one stone’. For this he had only a few hours until dawn, otherwise this dawn would be the last thing he would see in his life. No way did he want to end up in a burial capsule in the middle of the dead and silent vacuum of open space.

The Philosopher's cross-eyed look did not for a moment unnerve his executioners, who roughly picked him up, like a rag doll, and dragged him from the cell.

As they passed by Liroith's cell, which was adjacent to his, Pindor seemed to regain some of his strength. The veil that had been blocking his vision fell from his eyes for a moment, and without fully realizing what had happened so far, he asked half angrily, half in wonder.

- 'Where the devil are you taking me?,' the man staggered, struggling to free himself from the iron grip, but it proved utterly useless and his attempt to resist was broken.

- 'You'll be showing your energy soon, Philosopher,' Viar, who was walking a little further back, smiled mockingly. 'Very soon.'

The lone group, consisting of four men, had to cross the distance between the caverns and the xentari, where the warders' dwellings were located. The structures in question numbered about sixty, but still formed something resembling a settlement of quite respectable, for a space colony, dimensions. The greenish futuristic buildings were indeed an impressive sight. In the best-kept xentar lived Acustro.

Of course, it wasn't every day that a prisoner was ushered into a warden's quarters. To be fair, it was the first time it had happened. Even the guards were completely baffled as to what was going on. But Viar was playing his part beautifully. He felt he had things in his own hands, or so he thought.

The group stood beneath a curve of the xentar about four meters above the surface. They were enveloped by a beam of light and the chiliron suction valve creating artificial gravity pulled them up.

After passing through the special pressure equalization chamber, they removed their spacesuits. The hydron door opened and Acustro stood before them. His face was as pale as a ghost's.

- 'Philosopher, I expect you have some interesting things to tell me about your plot,' he hissed, his voice seemingly calm and soft, but with a subtle note of menace.

Even the guards could sense the tense atmosphere. Honestly, if it were up to them, they would prefer to leave, but there was nowhere to move. Even the mere presence of Acustro was unsettling and stretching their nerves to the limit.

The light in the room was dim, with Acustro's face half-lit and inscrutable.

- 'Leave us,' he waved casually to the guards.

For a moment, Viar felt an inner confusion, and it seemed to him that someone was gripping his heart with cold metal pincers. The guards silently stepped back and left his chambers. Viar hesitated to leave, and had just taken a step in retreat when a slither escaped from between Acustro's thin snake lips:

- Not you, Viar.

At that remark from the supreme sovereign of this place, the tension that had suddenly gripped him evaporated and he regained some of his confidence.

- 'So,' Acustro prompted after a brief silence, 'you were going to escape, then? And who was the instigator of all this?,' he continued, his voice seeming to come from underground.

The philosopher was obstinately silent and refused to speak, but it was plain to see that he had come out of the stupor which had seized him only a moment before. Viar looked at him in amazement. Where had such audacity come from in this simple prisoner? Acustro gave no sign of impatience, but one could guess that he was not pleased with the silence of the estranged party. His anger was likely to erupt at any moment, like a tropical storm.

There was evidently some strange change going on in the Philosopher, some inner struggle that was picked up to some extent by the others in the room.

- 'You treat us like dogs, and worse,' the Philosopher began, 'is this the democracy we all believed in so much? You slaughter us every goddamn day with unreasonable standards and even for no reason. Just for personal pleasure. To show us that you hold the power.'

- 'You're right about that,' Acustro tossed in casually. 'I do hold the power. And as for democracy - there is no democracy in this camp. In fact, it never has.,' he laughed lightly, baring his sharp white teeth. 'But you're not so innocent either, Philosopher. You've killed two people. You deserve to be here.'

- 'And I would do it again. Against people like you, it's the only possible remedy.,' the Philosopher, who only a moment ago had stood so meekly and apathetically, staring into nothingness, stretched himself.

- 'So, when the knife goes to the stake, you quickly forget your philosophical treatises!,' ventured Viar.

Acustro pretended not to notice his presence and his participation in the conversation at all. She didn't even bother to cross him.

- 'Listen, Philosopher, I have no time to waste, you know who the others are. If you betray them, it's possible I might spare you. You do have valuable qualities. I might even make you the colony warden, who knows?,' drawled Acustro, seemingly casually.

Viar was now truly amazed here. His plan was definitely starting to fail, even before he had properly gotten into action.

- 'I am not an informer,' replied the Philosopher shortly.

- 'Just think,' Acustro continued in a honeyed voice, but Viar was under no illusions that something terrible was about to happen, 'you can see your family again. I can tell you where little Roian is, whom you may think is dead. And your wife Liz - don't you want to see her in your arms again?'

'How the hell does he know all this?,' wondered Viar, who was beginning to suspect he was in mortal danger. He wasn't fooling himself that Acustro who never acted directly but wrapped himself like a boa around his victim, blowing on her slowly and painfully, was now cooking up some sort of surprise for him.

A thin trickle of sweat ran down the Philosopher's forehead. Confusion was read in his eyes. It was as if all his manhood had evaporated in less than a second. The blow had had its effect.

- 'It was impossible.,' he answered in amazement. 'These are lies, vile manipulations. his mind was ready to scream under the onslaught of the memory.'

- 'Are your so-called friends worth as much as your most beloved people?,' Acustro struck his final blow.

 

^^^

Today was a special day or night for Colony 206. Depends on the zegandarian perspective, as it was practically perpetual darkness here. Pindor spent all this time in an isolated capsule. It was so quiet inside that he could hear the sound of his own breathing. Acustro had determined his sentence, which would be a simple hanging as in the distant past. Of course, any sane person would question how you could hang someone in the middle of open space with an almost complete lack of gravity. Well, according to Acustro's design, it was entirely possible. What's more, he had eagerly determined and even methodically tested the exact way to accomplish this torture, which filled him with a thrill of excitement. Powerful magnetic bracelets were hooked to the unfortunate's legs, and special dual nanomagnets would create a concentrated gravitational microfield that would tear the intruder in two as a special collar of Kevlarite was placed around his head. There was no shortage of symbolism. In this way, Acustro would show them once more that he viewed them as dogs.

The prisoners, lined up to watch what was to happen to their leader, would have been perfectly aware of the whole ridiculousness of the thought of escape. He was, after all, the soul of the place! He had built it, using the natural features of the environment, to his own taste. He had calculated every micrometer of those 10,000 scinters. He'd put extra posts at the shuttle docks and the isolated bays for the upper-class ships, just in case. Just in case there was some reckless daredevil ready to act rashly! Still, he had some vague feeling, some instinct nagging at him that something might go wrong.

Pindor was to serve him well as a pretext to deal with Viar and his dastardly plots. But he had to tread carefully. Though he seemed like the undisputed master of this colony, Acustro was well aware that the other wardens under Viar's command could sweep him off his feet with ease. But his ability to inspire fear and remain unpredictable would have come in handy.

The philosopher was extracted and his hands were pinned most carefully. Given the fact that the suits were a complete necessity, the job to nailing him down took longer than expected.

The deaths of Lihodron and Kendor would not be forgotten. They did their duty and died heroically! The culprit of all the heinous rebel activity will be severely punished!’ the young warden recited with well-played pathos. After all, he had to suck up to his superiors, and a second such occasion would hardly do.

- 'Carry out the sentence immediately,' ordered Acustro, licking his lips almost imperceptibly, for in his mind was a clear memory of Pindor's well-defined spiritual superiority. That learned imp had to pay with his blood!

The kevlarite collar had begun to tighten around the unfortunate's neck and his face had begun to turn blue.

- 'Turn off his oxygen supply,' ordered Viar, standing nearby.

Pindor was beginning to drown, but was still trying to appear strong and steadfast to his tormentors. A moment later, foam began to erupt from his mouth, spraying the glass of his suit. His eyes began to glaze over and he lost consciousness. The veins along his temples bulged under the pressure.

- 'I feel death is near...If this is to be my end, so be it. 'I deserved it...,' Pindor fell into a delirium caused by the lack of oxygen.

Suddenly, there were noises from the tachyon engines, like gibberish due to the distortions in space-time they were causing, and the entire human crowd went into a frenzy. It was as if an invisible knife was cutting a thin, ethereal, almost invisible silk, and through this opening in the middle of nowhere the outline of some object of solid matter began to project. Before long the hull of the huge transport shuttle took on a clearer outline and became visible. ‘Emzirou’ was preparing to enter the atmosphere. Lateral stabilisers on the secondary ion thrusters were to ensure a smooth vertical descent before landing in specially adapted bays for ships of this class.

Acustro was definitely annoyed that the deliveries were coming at such a sublime moment, but he couldn't have predicted it. Nor was there any way to