Meltdown Ophilion - Book One

42_INTERROGATION

"You don't really believe that we are working for your enemies, do you?" No one breathed. The young girl's voice sounded as if it belonged to someone much older. "You're afraid you'll fail." Carlin felt himself gasp for air. "You're afraid that all you've worked so hard for will not succeed. You're afraid you'll fail your people again; those who trust in you. We are here to allay your fears, Carlin. We are not the enemy."

Jenna's three companions felt waves of relief wash over them. They see us! It was the same feeling they had had when they experienced their first relay in Jenna's aging transport on their way to Kypro. Orion felt all of the tension and pessimism fall away as he listened to Jenna's voice, realizing that someone – one of the Antarion – was telepathically communicating with her. It felt different from Jenna's monologue, or Celli's. The worlds were Jenna's, but she was receiving prompts and suggestions which she used to formulate her sentences.

"We work for forces that care about our world as much as we do. Yes, they are alien, but they work for one we call the Caretaker – Togan, the Mother of Nature. You know her." Jenna paused and took a breath. "It is time. This is the time."

Carlin felt sharp electric tingles as the shock of Jenna's words worked its way through his body. As speechless as he felt he managed to say one word, which came slowly. "How?"

This was the intruders' chance. None of the great scientists would speak for a few minutes in any case. Jenna went on to explain, concisely, all that had transpired in the last five porthen. During her monologue the erudite men and women facing her sat like so many statues, hardly blinking an eyelid. She concluded her astonishing narrative after ten minutes, giving her audience a chance to regroup.

The scientists began breathing normally again and blinking and turning their heads to look at their fellows, but they would let Carlin have the first question. All the confidence had gone out of their leader. Somehow, he knew Jenna was right – although he had no idea how it could be possible, and his logical mind would not accept it. "But..." he attempted, "We have a plan. We will execute it or we will die trying."

"Why?" Jenna's accused.

"Because..." Carlin tried to make his answer seem sensible, "it's the best we can do; because we were the ones who started the whole process in the first place – the first time – five cenro ago. We... we developed the theory for quantol explosives. The team that is developing the charges now is using what remained from our research – whatever we didn't destroy." He looked at the mrith team and the Regalan. "So, you see, we have to – I have to. I don't have a choice."

"You do now."

Carlin looked skeptically at Jenna. "Your friends? The Aliens?" He actually began to consider the possibility so desperate was he. "Will they stop the tests? Do they really have the kind of power to stand up to the Order, to the Qonaar?"

Jenna's face was inscrutable. She had yet to tell them of the probable outcome. "I'm afraid..." She took a deep breath. "I'm afraid it won't be possible to stop the tests." Her tone was sympathetic, yet firm.

"But, your friends," a fresh voice spoke. "The..." she struggled to remember the name of their organization.

"Merenthaal." Jenna said.

"Merenthaal, ye;, they are the same as the Antarion?"

"Merenthaal is the official name of their order; we call them Antarion because it's the name of their ship – the Antarious."

"The Antarious... yes... so, if they have come all this way, and if they have that kind of power, they could easily avert this disaster." The woman who spoke had a dark skin tone with light blue dermal markings. She was a tall, sophisticated elderly lady attired immaculately in white and gray. Her light blue eyes held a hopeful look. She did not possess Carlin's level of skepticism.

"We asked them the same question. Even if they did, five cenro from now someone else would be developing the weapons all over again. The disaster would only be postponed; the problem is with the ruling council of Kypro – they will not give up on trying to neutralize the Quarinor shield.

"You bought us time when you sabotaged the tests five cenro ago; but you did that, being natives of Ophilion; you made that choice and took that risk and look what it's cost you – what it cost Orion and Monti and their families." Everyone pondered in silence. "The time of the com-zones has come to an end."

"And the agents, the... Merenthaal, they decided this, then?" Carlin asked, resentfully.

Orion answered this question. "No," his voice carried in clear, confident tones across the table, "we did." He scanned the faces of the Chiefs. "Every Ophilion for the last ten generations did." He glanced at Jenna. "Not the Regalan, though, they broke away from the Com when they saw the direction in which they were developing. It's those of us who are part of the com-zones. Our collective choices have brought this upon us.

"This is the inevitable consequence of our actions; our greed or submission to tyranny or desire for power or compliance to corrupt rulers – a corrupt Order." Orion was thrilled and grateful to experience ideas and prompts appearing in his head, forming a coherent thread that had a powerful effect. "This is why Jenna's people left when they did. Some of them were in the Science Circle, like you; they had some of the same Ideas, and today they live lives that are in balance with nature and with each other." Orion looked to Jenna and she picked up the thread.

Jenna realized that something had happened to Orion since the previous evening. He was a completely different person, and she was grateful. "The downfall of the com-zones doesn't mean the end of Ophilion," Jenna said. "I have lived my whole life in the free-zone." Her face brightened at the picture forming in her mind. "We have wonders there that all the technology of the com can't compare to. Life wasn't meant to be lived like this – human beings like you and me – little better than machines; living out their lives in a metallic underworld like the mechanic center above us, or in a factory like Orion and Celli and Fel, or as a victim of the crimes that these unnatural environments produce.

"Even if the Merenthaal use their power to divert this disaster, if the com-zones are left the way they are it won't be long before some other destructive force appears. And life for millions of people will still be a living death. Why is it that I hear so much about death when I'm in the com-zones? Why do I not hear people speak of life, of love, of hope? Because we are in the grip of despair here. When the very system we live in produces these emotions in a majority of the population that system is corrupt, and that corruption will eventually destroy the system."

It was difficult for the Chiefs to find counter-arguments. The teenagers were making some valid points.

"Yes, but... what of that very population you refer to?" A short, rotund, balding man asked in a tone of incredulity. "There are almost four billion people in all the com-zones and close-range agri-zones. It's their lives we are trying to save. I can't believe your friends would sit by with that kind of power in their hands and let them all perish so a few people can start over."

"That's where you come in." Orion said.