Empire of the Sun God by Mehmood Syed

Author:Mehmood Syed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2022-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The Eastern Military Base deserves a better name than the one it has, Duchess Mariam thought as she made her way to the four storey office building that served as headquarters of her small military contingent. She mused about renaming the base after her husband, but military installations were typically named after great warriors in military history and her husband was certainly no warrior. Besides, Carthage had precious little of history at all, let alone any of it militaristic. That would soon change, though, she knew. The Emperor would be invading soon. Perhaps the coming battle would lend some feat of valour to the base’s name…If, of course, there is anyone left alive to rename the base.

Outside, five large hangars, capable of housing at least two interplanetary shuttles each, were busy with people coming and going, pushing small trolleys of tools with them, or manoeuvring forklifts of bulkier equipment into the buildings to repair and modify the small fleet. The air has hot and dry, and the wind threw hot red dust across her face as she pushed open the glass door of the building. She was greeted by a blast of air from inside as she entered and felt the cool wash over her. The Duchess asked a woman dressed in military fatigues for Dr Schaffer and was soon directed up a flight of stairs and along a narrow corridor to an empty meeting room on the first floor, furnished with a large faux mahogany table and four swivel chairs. The windows opposite the door looked out over the landing strip and the tall, black mountain range beyond. She moved to the window and tried to imagine what it would be like in the caves. She had visited them only once before with her husband who, waxed lyrical about the basic geology he could discern from the red, brown, and black formations within. His enthusiasm however was wasted on the Duchess who could only appreciate the enormous size of the caves. The caves had been deep and dark with many tunnels hinting at further, deeper crevices and caves beyond. Fitting her populace into the caves would be relatively easy, she thought. Keeping them alive once they were there, will be more difficult. Stockpiling of food and water in the caves was already underway however, according to the latest update she had received from Treasurer Nakamoto. Dr Abbas had identified the members of the populous most appropriate for evacuation to Alsuwayra based on their age and infirmity, but she had not yet heard from Ibrahim and was growing increasingly concerned at the silence. Her attempts to contact the Duchess Aisha had proved equally unsuccessful. Alsuwayra was integral to their survival. If Ibrahim has failed to sway the Duchess, he will have to evacuate the infirm to the caves instead. Where is he? she thought.

She turned at the sound of the door behind her opening and the walking commotion that was Dr Elizabeth Schaffer entered the room. She was a

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