The Darkness Drops Again by Christopher L. Bennett

Author:Christopher L. Bennett [Bennett, Christopher L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure
ISBN: 9781416534525
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Part Three

Stardate 8006.5

(December 2282)

VosTraal, Mestiko

“H ave you all gone mad?”

Odra maVolan’s unclouded eyes glared sternly at the members of the ruling Synod, but they refused to flinch before him. Asal Janto spoke for the majority. “On the contrary. We are facing reality. The people are on the verge of revolution.”

“Then we must crack down harder, not make concessions!”

“The more we crack down, the harder they resist. We must not forget that it was the people who put us in power, because we promised them a better world, better lives. And now they will take that power away from us if we do not begin serving their needs again!”

“They do not know what they need! They have been seduced by the blasphemy spread by Lon, by elMora’s speeches smuggled from that alien hell she rightly inhabits. They are lost souls too deafened by their growling bellies to hear God’s voice. They need us to interpret it for them.”

“Because we are the only ones with enough to eat?” countered Mokar maNashol, one of the mar-Atyya cleric-administrators who had come around to Asal’s side. “They hate us, Odra, and we have given them reason. If we hope to avoid being strung up by the necks like Nal Kotyar was in Tazokka, we must show the people we are listening to them!”

“By casting aside our control altogether? By abandoning everything we have fought for this past twelveyear and more?”

“Are you so certain,” Asal asked him, “that we have no chance of winning a free election? If that is so, then do we even deserve to rule?”

“God decided that I was to rule. And I chose you to rule with me. So be cautious, Mokar, when you speak of being strung by the neck. That is the fate I dole out to enemies of the state.”

“And that is why we keep gaining more enemies,” Asal insisted. “Study your history, Odra. Killing off resistance always multiplies it rather than eliminating it.”

“Then how do we retain our power if we give the rabble the license to throw us out? When they stand outside our walls right now screaming Raya elMora’s name, how can we think that handing them power can save us?”

“It can save our lives, at least,” maNashol said. “If we step back now, we can survive to carry on the fight.”

“And be exiled, as the Zamestaad were? Be separated from the soil with which we share our very souls?” MaVolan shook his head. “Better to die here and stay as one with holy hur-Atyya.”

“You martyr yourself if you like, Odra,” said Asal.

“But you’re overruled. We’re accepting Lon’s proposal. Free elections, monitored by the Federation.”

MaVolan grimaced. “Even worse—to bring those heathens back.”

“At least,” maNashol said, “they are the one thing we all have in common. Everyone resents them equally.”

Asal was not so sure of that. Dr. Lon’s resistance movement had been very effective, both at spreading its alien plants and at disseminating their results to the people. It had become increasingly impossible to deny that the

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