Dadr'Ba (19 page)

Chi’Yo
[74]
stared at the screen reluctant to review the recorded graduation ceremony mentioned in his daily security brief as a notable, possible resistance related event. He’d much rather reflect on his situation and his plans.

He hates graduations; he even hated his own, the more he tried to forget his less than stellar placement at his graduation, the more he couldn’t forget it and the closer to the top of his mind it remained. He barely managed to stay out of the bottom third of his D’En graduating class overall; his only saving grace was that he did well at security academics, consistently scoring in the top three percent.

Now he’s the Director of CASS, the only real person in a position over him is the Commander. The fact that he purged and edited his academic records which may have helped him along the way doesn’t matter. Results, the present, and the future are all that matters.

He only wished he could do something about the lingering doubts and fears that he could lose control of the security empire he created that relentlessly plagues him. He’s tried to assuage his nagging insecurities by behaving like the pinnacle of military discipline and demanding the same from his subordinates.

His demands of zero-tolerance for transgressions and constantly reminding his underlings that he’s in charge often by pointing out his subordinate’s failings and errors (even insignificant ones) as frequently and publicly as possible, doesn’t help his self-doubts or his self-esteem.

For those under him that he can’t find fault with, he occasionally fabricates errors. After all, he’s in charge, and nobody can question him, and he doesn’t tolerate insubordination. Whenever a subordinate questions him, he ridicules them, demotes them or punishes them with menial disgraceful tasks, which teaches them discipline. He allows them to acknowledge their transgression and submit to his leadership. Then when he’s satisfied that they’ve proven their loyalty and fealty, he may allow them back into his graces.

Chi’Yo wished his mate Me’Lng was more obedient and supportive. Despite being a Second Gn’R, the Central Council is all First Gn’R’s and ToG survivors; he would fit in among the top echelon better if Me’Lng would attend all the functions wives are supposed to participate and treat him reverently, the way he deserves to be treated. Then the council would treat him more like an equal. Then, with the proper set of circumstances, he’d have a better chance at becoming Commander, in spite of his lack of rank. 

Me’Lng can be made into not a problem. She’s headstrong and smart, so smart that she’s stupid. She doesn’t see that it would have been better had she been more engaged and supportive during his career, instead of reluctantly following him and privately obstructing him. Considering the rank structure, it might not have made any real difference, but she will eventually pay for her impudence.

He mated with Me’Lng too early, and Chi’Yo’s grand plan for pressuring Me’Lng’s parents to retire early so they could birth early, and rear devoted accomplices to assist in the creation of his dynasty turned to disaster. Me’Lng’s parents did retire early but gave the birthing rights to Me’Lng’s brother.

When the time comes, Me’Lng will be in internal exile. Once he seizes control as Commander.

All ranks, including the top job of Commander, is based strictly on seniority. All the Sector Commanders are very close in rank to Commander Di’Zo most within a few days and over the centuries, the Commanders Position has sometimes changed over mere days’ worth of seniority. As head of security, Chi’Yo knows the stats exactly.

The next rank assessment and realignment isn’t until after they reach O’M and being a Second Gn’R Chi’Yo wouldn’t even be in the top 100 in line for the top job. For Chi’Yo to become the Commander, the rank system would have to be changed from seniority to merit. Then, given his position as security chief, he could easily pull off a coup d’état.

Ah, the coup d’état, what an excellent concept, a shining example of why knowledge of the past should be controlled, banned completely from the masses, and reserved for the privileged elite like himself with the real need to know.

Even the central council and Commander don’t “need” to know, (thanks to a little help from Chi’Yo) they don’t have the time or the foundational knowledge necessary to access or understand it. It would only interfere with their duties. They need someone like himself to control and manage the information they receive.

Chi’Yo has done all the work for them, looking into the histories, and providing them only the information needed to support the decisions that Chi’Yo wants them to make. The first Security Director, the one that Chi’Yo successfully deposed was a genius for arranging for the council to enact the FOP (Forward Only Policy) with its prohibition against history and the waste of valuable resources. History taints us with past mistakes, degrades our noble cause, and carries with us the atrocities our ancestors performed against each other, and how we ruined our world and its environment. The FOP facilitated a bloodless information coup.

The council’s decision to restrict access to the past enabled the first security director to put the controls in place to make him knowledge gatekeeper, and he restricted access to portions of the past from the Council itself.

Obtaining access to the forbidden information was one of the first things Chi’Yo did when promoted to Assistant Security Director. There he learned of historical precedents that gave him the confidence to arrange his ascension to top security job, and now his sights are set on Commander.

For his coup d’état to work, all he’d need to do is, fabricate a crisis, declare martial law, seize control of the council, and place himself in the top job, “temporarily.” Then never relinquish command declaring Di’Zo incompetent for not foreseeing the crisis and put Di’Zo first into temporary then permanent internal exile. As the council did to Chi’Yo’s father Cha’Bo
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, then isolate Di’Zo until he eventually loses the will to live.

By the time Chi’Yo’s father, Cha’Bo, retired, he was virtually incapable of a proper retirement and Cha’Bo, probably prompted by Chi’Yo’s mother Png’Yi
[76]
and sister Lu’Le
[77]
made it much worse by insisting that the birthright is split between Chi’Yo and his sister Lu’Le.

If it weren’t for the help of the Church Elder that was called at the last moment to assist psychically, Chi’Yo’s father and mother would have been totally lost. As it was, they were so far gone there wasn’t a whole lot left of them to pass on. Just as well thought Chi’Yo, his father was a fool to allow himself to be trapped into exile; he wasn’t strong or ruthless enough, and such softness shouldn’t be passed to future generations.

Chi’Yo is proud of Dan’Zu, his only child, still young, and arrogant, but doing remarkably well at the private CASS Security Academy, that Chi’Yo as CA security chief has under his supervision and control.

Chi’Yo reflected back, on how Dan’Zu pleaded and begged not to be taken out of the D’En private school and sent to attend public U’Te school. The punishment Chi’Yo’s chose for Dan’Zu after Dan’Zu lost his temper and struck another D’En because the other student caught Dan’Zu cheating on an exam and reporting him. It was a stupid mistake; Chi’Yo would have easily gotten Dan’Zu a copy of the exam for him had he only asked. But, Dan’Zu was too proud to admit he was having trouble and ask his Ba for help.

Chi’Yo was able to cover up the impropriety and made sure it wasn’t documented, anywhere. To teach Dan’Zu a lesson, Chi’Yo sent Dan’Zu to public school (temporarily). To Chi’Yo’s astonishment, after an initial rebellion Dan’Zu excelled and became top in the class (of course) academically and class leader before Chi’Yo pulled him back to private D’En school, (after making arrangements for Dan’Zu’s success back at the new school). While Dan’Zu was in public school, he developed a welcome sense of superiority and contempt for U’Te’s and the lower classes.

Now he’s excelling as a cadet at the CASS Academy following in his father’s footsteps. Dan’Zu’s stubbornness, self-assertiveness, and guile should continue to grow. Facilitated by Chi’Yo’s machinations, Dan’Zu will develop into a cunning, ruthless adult and a worthy lieutenant to Chi’Yo when he becomes Commander.

The greatest challenge will be keeping Dan’Zu loyal and obedient to Chi’Yo. Aside from imposing discipline on Dan’Zu from a young age, Chi’Yo will withhold access to the past from Dan’Zu. Dan’Zu must never learn of all the historical occurrences of the princes deposing the King. First, Chi’Yo must take over the kingdom.

The aliens infecting O’M might be crisis enough to prompt his coup, especially if the aliens continue to progress at the rate they currently are. They’ve already provided justification for an increase in the soldiers’ capabilities, their numbers, their weapons, and ammunition.

He still needs to work on softening the Council members, so they remain docile during and immediately after the coup, and he must line up suitable “replacements” because not one of them can be allowed to stay on the council. The replacements will need to be weak and obedient, but with proper credentials, either real or manufactured. Chi’Yo smiled to himself; his plan is coming along well; nobody knows what a coup d’état is, it’s forbidden knowledge that he alone possesses.

Dadr’Ba’s Commander Di’Zo doesn’t suspect a thing, Chi’Yo keeps Dadr’Ba a well-functioning machine and keeps Di’Zo in power. For all practical purposes, at least as far as Chi’Yo is concerned Dadr’Ba practically belongs to him already. Nothing happens on the ship that Chi’Yo doesn’t have his finger on, the problems with the surveillance systems, in Ol’Tn and below, notwithstanding.

The Bo’R’s are a finicky lot, but they’ve proven they can be trusted to produce in spite of their grumbling and complaints. They had even met their minimums even during the Equal Job Rights Protests.

The Equal Job Rights Protests were mostly a product of U’Te boredom, and aside from the superficial concessions made by the CA, Chi’Yo has worked to ensure discipline is maintained.

Chi’Yo fast forwarded through the video of standing ovation given to a U’Te volunteering and getting a Bo’R job. It shouldn’t have happened there are supposed to be controls in place to make sure that U’Te’s don’t get Bo’R jobs.

Someone goofed, no matter, all that this indicates is job boredom among a few of the U’Te’s. He’ll have a message sent out to tighten up job selection procedures.

Based on the, less than stellar cognitive scores and academics, there’s little fear that this “P’Ko” is going to amount to anything other than an average Kr. Chi’Yo was confident that once sent down into the mines; this P’Ko would ever be heard from again.

He’s not going to let it happen, but if tomorrow another U’Te were picked for a Bo’R job, Chi’Yo doubted that there is a ripple of applause let alone a standing ovation. The novelty is already gone.

What would be novel is a Bo’R applying for and getting selected for a U’Te job, but as a dumb as Bo’R’s are they aren’t that stupid, the level of job satisfaction between a production job versus a mindless service sector job is evident.

Chi’Yo will have someone keep an eye on P’Ko, and noted it on his console; this P’Ko might prove useful in infiltrating the resistance.

Chn’Gi sat with her head down on her desk; the latest report displayed much larger than life on the wall panel across from her desk. In spite of the caution against and NSTR reports, her last several have been essentially that, the current collection numbers steadily increasing as well as the cumulative total, but without a language key the data she was collecting is little more than static noise.

The CA leadership, as inept as they appear in some of their comments and decisions, make up for it in their ruthlessness and total disregard for others. They operate on their own personal and corporate agenda, expecting everyone to behave like automatons, relying on imposed discipline. The CA treats everyone below them as if they’re mindless, without independent thought, feelings or priorities of their own. They treat people like they have no family, religion, pride of workmanship or self-esteem.

Chn’Gi, a D’En, considered herself to be book smart, smarter than most, yet she knew herself not to be very psychic. She was nothing like the Kr’s, especially the Dr’T’s
[78]
, Bo’R’s or Mi’Nr’s, who are naturally adept at it.

She didn’t like the feelings she was experiencing, but couldn’t help these emotional swings, these overwhelming feelings that made her light headed and made her stomach ache. These feelings began with the first detection of signals from O’M and had gotten steadily worse the more she’s come to realize how little she knows about the O’Mi’s.

She thought about stopping by that soothsayer’s shop she’d seen in Ol’Tn and ask for help, but confiding in a stranger, especially something like this, knowing that she’s being watched, that would wind her up in big trouble.

No, she can’t speak to the soothsayer, that would end in disaster. The more she thought about it, the more she knew if she sent forward another report listing the number and types of signals they picked up from O’M, she’d face another confrontation with the Commander.

She’d face another reprimand, and probably get fired, or worse. She had to do something.

Chn’Gi and her staff were watching as O’M developed technology, she knew logically that other civilizations in the past must have developed technologies like those they see developing on O’M. By studying the development of the technology of past civilizations, she should be able to answer the Councils demand for more information.

But, how can she get around the CA’s long-standing and strict “FOP or forward only policy” and its prohibition against A’Pa, (Anti-Progress activities, that carries capital punishment)? The research databases that she has access to are devoid of any historical information prior to the ToG event. Any query or attempt to access older data results in a banner message “YOU HAVE CONDUCTED A PROHIBITED SEARCH - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN LOGGED AND A RECORD OF IT HAS BEEN SENT TO THE CASS FOR POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY ACTION”.

The relatively ancient history covering the times when Dadr’Ba’s ancestors originally developed radio technology must have been purged, blocked, or perhaps destroyed or erased from the online memory system or system of systems that grid the core of Dadr’Ba.

But, thought Chn’Gi, there must be nonvolatile backups or archives, even if the CA chose not to load them. If she could get access to some of those offline nonvolatile backups and review some of the histories, it could help provide answers to the questions and increasingly threatening demands from the Council for information.

What kind of reaction would she get it if she asked the council for access to these archives? The Commanders earlier refusal and this banner warning, was answer enough. Contemplating the consequences of her searches gave her shivers, rumors abound about people caught and charged with A’Pa. “DISCIPLINARY ACTION” encompasses a broad range of penalties, none of which Chn’Gi wanted anything to do with.

The more she thought about it, the more Chn’Gi began to worry about her reports. Although she had stopped submitting NSTRs, reporting gradually increasing numbers of signals received, their types, magnitudes, frequencies, and frequency spread, she had a gnawing fear that she would soon be charged with FTP (failure to progress), or the most serious charge of HP (hampering progress).

She felt that she had two choices. One, she could continue on the present course and lose credits, mileage, position, privilege, and status by continuing on the current course by falling under charges of FTP or HP. Or two, risk the same by taking a chance and seek out Dadr’Ba’s ancient history and coming up with the information the Council was demanding, keep and even improve her status, prestige, and reputation and as an afterthought, if caught, attribute her violations as attempts to satisfy the Council’s demands.

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Chn’Gi walked down the dimly lighted main street of Ol’Tn, slowly passing the street vendor stalls, occasionally stopping to purchase some spices and tea to complete her cover story. She paused momentarily in front of the curio/soothsayers shop but didn’t go in.

It’s not the first time she’s gone to the street market, and although D’En’s are infrequent visitors to Ol’Tn, it’s not unusual for them to shop at the street market. Today, however, was going to be different, she walked on past “Mi’Ka’s psychic readings and Curio’s” then listed down one side of the door; “Aura’s, Cleromancy, Numerology, Palmistry, Psychometry and Remote Viewing.”

Despite her earlier contemplation of consulting Mi’Ka, Chn’Gi wondered how anyone could fall for such stuff. Sure, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that precognition has merit, or at least couldn’t be definitively disproven. Then there’s Dadr’Ba’s retirement and birthing process, which is absolute proof of psychic phenomena with every birth. Despite the CA’s best efforts, their scientists can’t figure out how it works, but it does. There’s a religious explanation, but it relies on faith and not facts or anything measured with a scientific instrument.

But really, being able to predict the future defies the laws of physics. Being a scientist, Chn’Gi never placed any stock in fortune telling. She knew that the CA had conducted classified research into the subject, but rumor intelligence says there’s nothing there that couldn’t be explained probabilistically.

Chn’Gi passed a few more shops, taking notice of a tavern made from a passenger pod, she peeked in one of the oval viewing ports and saw a long bar that reached half of its length with booths along the opposite side. She passed a hotel that was made up of stacks of cargo containers, cut and welded together to form a haphazard pile of block-shaped “rooms” a walkway across the fronts with ramps and ladders. Doors with room numbers plainly visible. The office door stood open, covered with only a curtain blocking out the cold. A lighted sign, saying “Vacancy” on one side.

A few occupants leaned on the rails watching passersby. Chn’Gi cringed, she was sure that some of these “people” were watching her intently. She was afraid to look for fear of making eye contact and suddenly realized how cold it was, she wished that she had brought something to cover her thin, pale hair, which made her stand out in Ol’Tn as a D’En and an outsider as starkly as if she were carrying a strobe light. Next time, if she survives to return, she’ll have to be better prepared.

Chn’Gi continued down the street, certain that she was followed. It was the middle of the workday, and not many people were around. She saw mostly Mi’Nr’s and a few poorer looking U’Te’s coming and going. She passed “homes” consisting of rows of carbon fiber nanotube cylinders sometimes stacked five deep and of varying lengths of five, ten or fifteen meters and about three meters in diameter insulated with foam, with doors cut in the ends that faced the street or the small alleys that provided access to the ones behind. Very few had windows adjacent the doors. Stairs and scaffolding provided access to the upper levels.

Chn’Gi walked past these original capsule flats, once serving as homes for everyone on Dadr’Ba but now home for the lowest ranking of Dadr’Ba. People who for whatever reason had not accumulated enough mileage or credits toward promotion to Nu’Tn. Or from some financial catastrophe lost their mileage credits and status.

Chn’Gi passed the common dining and bath facilities and wondered how it was possible that the people that lived and worked here managed for so long. Authorized History states that Nu’Tn wasn’t constructed until after the ToG event, which means the original crew of Dadr’Ba lived in these quarters under these conditions for thousand years.

She couldn’t get her mind around how people could live for generations under such sparse and harsh conditions and why the CA doesn’t do something about the people forced to live here now. Tear down this, slum and remodel to modern standards, but then as she thought about it, she realized that the CA is so pragmatic, so waste-averse that they couldn’t expend energy or resources “remodeling” these Ol’Tn shanty town tenements without there being a direct tie to forward progress.

Chn’Gi walked past the last rows of living modules and through a high gate into the junkyard. Marveling at all the various examples of old technology scattered around, shipping containers with doors open displaying all sorts of who knows what kinds of devices and machines, some of the machines so gigantic that Chn’Gi couldn’t see all of it in the dim light.

The D’Po office was easy to spot, she walked toward a large structure, what may at one time (she guessed) part of a space station or huge cargo module or fuel tank. She noticed first, an enormous roll-up doorway, closed but large enough to drive a supply shuttle through. Painted on the door in big block letters with fluorescent paint and illuminated with black light “TRIED-N-TRUE CLASSIC STARSHIP PARTS EMPORIUM” Adjacent to the roll up door, stood an open personnel hatch with a neon OPEN sign directly above it.

She stepped through the hatch into a well-lit office space with a counter. Her eyes took a moment to adjust from dimness outside, then she approached the counter and saw the proprietor, a U’Te sitting behind an ancient terminal behind the counter, studying it.

Her hope increased. It was just the type of technology she hoped would possess, or provide access to, the ancient data she was looking for.

She stood for a moment at the counter waiting for the man to notice her. He was waving his arms and hands around frantically playing some game she didn’t recognize. His eyes focused on the screen; it must use motion sensing hand controls and not the virtual reality mode that’s been built into TaC-B’s for as long as she could remember.

Finally, he noticed her, surprised and embarrassed by her presence, he made a sort of zigzag cross motion that closed the display, and probably saved his progress. He stood quickly and walked over to meet her across the counter, straightening his clothes along the way.

He appeared visibly flustered; he must not get many D’En’s as customers. As he approached, he mumbled something about “Ah, I was just using an art program, uh, painting a picture… I get emotional with my art.” Then continuing, slowly regaining his composure, straightened and said in a professional tone as he could muster. “Welcome to Tried-N-True Classic Starship Parts Emporium, where nothing goes to waste, and everything is waiting for a second chance to help bring us O’M. My name is Lu’Gs, what’s your name and how can I assist you?”

At this point Chn’Gi was speechless. She hadn’t thought beforehand what she was going to say once she got this far, and now Lu’Gs is asking her name. She didn’t want to give him her real name, and she didn’t know how to ask for something that’s illegal from someone that might very well jump at the opportunity to burn a D’En by turning her into the CASS for illegal activities.

This person might just as easily think she’s undercover CASS trying to trap him. She looked at Lu’Gs, and then towards the door, still open, then around the office, then back at Lu’Gs. Then she finally got out, “I…, I work for the department of science, ah, and technology; I’m doing some research on, ah, old technology, and I’m looking for some old da…” “You’ve come to the right place” interrupted Lu’Gs.

“Old technology we’ve got a lot of,” said Lu’Gs as he came around the end of the counter motioning for silence and patted Chn’Gi lightly on the shoulder as he walked over and pulled the hatch closed, glancing around outside as he did. Then returned to his place behind the counter and flicked an old manual switch on the back wall. A strange bluish light in the middle of the ceiling sparked to life that a moment before looked as if it had burned out ages ago.

“I’m sure we can find what you need, ma’am, you can talk freely now, what are you looking for? My guess is, you’re looking for something very old and very, unique.” Chn’Gi nodded agreement. Lu’Gs continued in the same cordial tone as before, but it seemed clear that Chn’Gi’s next response would determine what Lu’Gs would have or could find. Lu’Gs continued, “very old, very unique can be very expensive, how’re you planning on paying?”

Chn’Gi’s mind was telling her that Lu’Gs sensed or surmised the sensitivity of the situation and must trust her, or he wouldn’t have taken actions to ensure their privacy. She was no longer at odds with Lu’Gs over the threat of turning each other into the CASS; it was now a business. Chn’Gi was more comfortable with business, she had bartered with the locals in Ol’Tn many times, so she allowed herself to relax, a little.

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather not use credits,” then after a slight pause Chn’Gi added, “they’re too hard to come by these days.” For most people on Dadr’Ba, this statement was all too true, but the real reason she didn’t want to use credits is that they are much easier for the CASS to track. Chn’Gi knew, that Lu’Gs must know this, which prompted him to ask the question in the first place.