The Silence of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (book recommendations website txt) 📕

- "You are mistaken!," he objected. "That we now inhabit Charon is not a whim of either Ertol Gis or Korolan Bru, but of something far deeper."

- What is it?

- "Do you know?," he looked at me, somewhat deadpan. "I wish I knew, too! But imagine you exist in one particular time period and don't exist in the next. What decisions are you going to make? How will they affect your destiny?"

- "It seems to me that your late father raised an inquisitive young man," he coughed softly. "Just be careful that the power struggle doesn't cause you to lose your soul."

- "I have heard," I turned to him, "that when we die we pass into what is called the astral state."

- "These things are not to be spoken of lightly," Rento became very serious, "Have you heard of the Seven Luminous Creatures?"

- "Perhaps you mean some of the races of the Galactic Federation?," I wondered.

- "No," was his answer, "let me tell you what the earthlings say about it - And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished."[1]

- "So that's a quote from some earthling book," I contradicted him.

- "It's called the Bible," Rento turned to me as if more knowledgeable.

- "And what are the holy creatures?," I continued with my questions.

- "They are called archangels," Rento answered me with a smile.

- "Do you really believe that?," I asked him quite seriously.

- "Well, Earthlings have long forgotten it," Rento continued, "They believe some technocratic nonsense now."

[1] The seven archangels are also known as the watchmen are mythical creatures known in the major world religions.

CHAPTER THIRTY: SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE

On Zegandaria, the god Erduk taught us that there were two kinds of people, Light and Dark. Those who were dark fed on the energy of the light ones. They were like energy vampires.

On Zegandaria, as I had already said, people rarely lived past fifty, and there was a reason for that. The teachings of Lord Erduk were very interesting in that regard-there was a passage there:

"In thirty years you shall live,

At forty - thou shalt see with other eyes,

In the end - not even fifty,

Thy path will end with me.

I - the god Erduk - am an old man,

And thy only master,

I take from thee thy gift,

and it is called life!"

From Rento's accounts, Om Gur Nal had cleverly used the cult of Erduk to bring about all the great disasters that had befallen our planet Zegandaria.

Now apparently on Charon things were repeating themselves and everything was going to start all over again.

My late friend Jake and I had discussed this matter a great deal - he told me in one of our many talks his interesting view.

- "Do you know why we are friends?," he whispered one night shortly before he died, "Because we both expect the Unseen - we are both trapped in our fears in the same way. We're just waiting, and time is running out."

I think Jake came out right somewhat, but it was later learned that the Unspeakables were none other than Enbright's men who punished delinquent debtors who were unwilling to pay.

There was a law of the colony which protected them from Enbright's encroachments, and which was made by myself as its leader and successor to the infamous Von Blask.

It read, "For anyone wrongfully disposing of the lives of others and not threatened by them for any reason, the penalty is death!"

It turned out that, using camouflage suits, Rento's gang had been suffocating people who had defaulted on their debts with a special new kind of gas called ambran, which they had gotten from who knew where. Or maybe the Ufurgans, who were smuggling, had sold it to them before we settled here.

But either way, nothing could be proved and they got away with their punishment.

Few would have challenged my decision for the simple reason that there was nothing more to happen. We had hit rock bottom. The human losses to the colony were significant and if I had liquidated them I would have simply confirmed something all too simple, that I could kill like them and was no different. So faced with the possibility of being brought before the Court Martial of Charon, which was in fact myself, they were recruited to be my assistants in the aforementioned expedition.

Incidentally, Enbright only let my hands loose to achieve his own plans.

That sadistic bastard and dirty scoundrel showed me the other side of life.

Somewhere in there, questioning some of his people, I realized that they had noticed his strange behavior after all.

Rivinus Olk, a great warrior, though part of his pack, told me the following:

He was peculiar and generally wanted everything for himself. Zerilia was fiSing the accounts of the whole group, but we suspect he was about to split off and leave Charon for good, as was Enbright himself.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: CLONE GH306

When he returned from his mission, the clone was richly rewarded for his accomplishments. His merit in overcoming such an enemy as the Ervanans was not to be overlooked. This was unacceptable. Earth's senators spoke to him most kindly, doing their best to point out his impressive services without which Earth would most likely not exist.

But one thing was present - the ill-concealed contempt. Yes, governors were wonderful actors who craved a little attention. Each of them had built their political careers through a multitude of crimes, but in practice, to truly succeed in the sordid life of politics, they needed a patron of their own - most often a senior associate of Korolan Bru.

Everyone's path to power was very different. Not all were of noble lineage.

GH306 was greeted by a senator from the Upper House of the Earth Federation.

The strange political structure of this planet consisted of a four chamber parliament called the Senate. To each class of senators corresponded the corresponding stratum of the population - to the first stratum - the slaves - the senators had no vote, to the second stratum - the ex-slaves - the senators had only attendance and advisory rights in the deliberations of the Senate, to the third stratum - the free citizens - the senators usually had a vote, and the fourth and highest - were all those senior members of the Zegandaria such as the employees of the Korolan Bru Corporation - their representatives had a double vote and usually easily won any decision that went through the Senate for a vote.

- "We rejoice in your extraordinary victory," murmured Senator Joseph Olroy, who was so erudite and adept at space battles that he could outshine any average admiral in the Earth fleet. "This shows your exceptional ability to calculate complex trajectories and make risky decisions under heightened alert."

He was joined by Senator Bondor, who was one of the most important members of the Senate.

- "There is no way that promotion will slip away from you this time, my dear!," he exclaimed in his turn. You are simply a very valuable example of your breed.

The words were spoken unintentioNaly enough, but GH306 was affected and felt that, in general, clones were just second-hand creatures. He even had to thank them for raising him and that situation - it was no small thing.

In time, those two senators became his protectors and offered him the position of second-in-command of the fleet, and a few years later, he was entrusted with the entire fleet.

There was no question that, career-wise, he was to be considered an overachiever.

But as time went on, he felt sadder and sadder, and it was just eating him up inside.

How were the clones any different than the rest of them - so weren't they human beings too? Hadn't they given their lives so many times to protect the Earth Federation?

GH306 went back to his assigned room on Earth.

It was a beautiful estate in the Veoria region - it was actually the former North, Central and South America, which had been renamed because the Earth Federation thought it was far easier and pragmatic to run provinces instead of dealing with entire continents and countries.

Before he fell asleep he sensed something was wrong.

When he turned he saw his benefactors.

- "You should just disappear," they told him. "Clones need to realize that your feelings are harmful, but so are your excessive merits."

GH306 didn't know what to say or do. But with his innate reflexes, he turned and took both their guns away. The strength of a clone - not even the specially selected ones - exceeded human strength by about one and a half times.

GH306 easily snapped their necks like toothpicks and they collapsed lifeless to the floor of his room.

He was sure his crime would soon be known and he would receive a very severe punishment, but he had used legal self-defense.

The two late senators were driven by anxiety that the clone would seriously endanger their interests if he acquired too much power, but on the other hand they could not close their eyes to his extraordinary qualities either. This finally put them in a stalemate.

From there, the path of their anger towards obliterating its source was too short, and then Hell awaited them.

GH306 covered his head with his hands - he felt remorse - a feeling that wasn't particularly typical of a clone. This was his emotional Hell.

The possibility of a trial wasn't out of the question, but usually clones were dealt with the latter way. They were sentenced to death, or else life in the mining colonies on the moon.Given that their life expectancy wasn't particularly long, it was just a few years to give back to the Earth Federation.