Stryker #5, At the End of Eternity – Chapter 11

“One thing I have realized about Tikal’s observatory is that it presents a realtime view of other planets. You can’t use it to view Mars – which I find quite odd – but I have been able to virtually set foot on Earth. The planet is quite beautiful, but unfortunately its only inhabitants are primitive forest people. I find it heartbreaking that the once-mighty civilization that ruled Earth has been reduced to hunter-gatherers who live like animals. I wonder if there’s some way to help them? Since we have no way to reach other planets right now it’s a purely academic question, but it is something to think about. I’m sure that we’ll eventually find a way to launch things into space. When we do we’ll have to see if there is any way we can help the poor people on Earth.”
–Noel Lawson
June 24, 7243
 

Elwood stared down at the rubble, horrified. “Monroe, you monster! What have you done?”

“What have I done?” Monroe exclaimed, startled. “I haven’t done anything! I was just standing here right next to you. You can’t possibly blame a landslide on me! I had absolutely nothing to do with it, and you know it.”

Elwood sighed. “And what a pity that is! I sincerely wish I could pin this on you, but I suppose you’re right. You don’t have the guts to do something like sabotage. You and your pathetic followers are content to write whiny letters to the editor and protest in council meetings. That’s why you always lose – you won’t do what it takes to win.”

“Winning isn’t everything,” Monroe replied. “The way one wins is very important.”

“Is it, now? Then you must be a bigger fool than I thought. By your way of thinking the lives of an entire race are at stake. Yet, despite this, you still insist on playing by the rules and keeping your fingernails clean. Even when the lives of millions are on the line, all you dare to do is file a couple feeble legal protests. You are just pathetic.”

Monroe shook his head. “I am a man under authority. I am constrained by the laws that God has put into place, and those laws forbid me from taking matters into my own hands, no matter how high the stakes are. God does not permit His children to commit horrific acts of evil, no matter how many lives those acts might save. Moreover, you fail to understand that I am trying to stop others from committing a grave sin. If they ignore my warnings and commit it anyway then they are the guilty ones, not me. It will not be on my conscience, although I will grieve for the lost lives.”

“I think what you’re trying to say is that you people are a bunch of losers. And I guess that’s a good thing, because it makes you so much easier to defeat.”

Elwood sighed and looked at the ruined road. “What a disaster! It couldn’t have happened at a worst time. The council is not going to be happy about this. It’s going to cost a lot of money to fix the road, build more tankers, and obtain more lithium. I have a feeling that their meeting with Maldonado tonight is going to be an unpleasant one. This is a huge setback. Earth suffered a serious blow today.”

“A serious blow?” Monroe asked. “That’s not quite how I’d describe it. But at any rate, I’m afraid that we must part ways for now. If there is going to be a meeting tonight I want to make sure that I don’t miss it. Sometimes these meetings have a way of going unreported.”

“Oh, grow up,” Elwood growled. “The reason they don’t tell you about them is because they don’t want you to be there. Can’t you just take a hint?”

“No, I can’t,” Monroe shot back. He then left the balcony, leaving Elwood alone.

* * * * *

After Monroe left Elwood he spent the rest of the morning trying to find Forbes. When he finally found him he forced him to admit that he was going to talk to General Maldonado, and he also managed to coax out of him the meeting time and location. Monroe was disappointed to learn that it wasn’t going to be a public meeting, but he did get him to admit that Monroe’s position as head scribe gave him a right to be present. Monroe knew that Forbes didn’t want him anywhere near that meeting but he was determined to not be excluded. He was going to take every chance he had to oppose the general and shut his project down.

With that in mind, late that evening Monroe entered the private chambers of the council. When he walked into Forbes’ office he saw that the only other person who was there, aside from Forbes himself, was the general. “Will no one else be here?” Monroe asked in surprise, as he took a seat. “I was expecting the rest of the council to attend.”

“This is quite sufficient,” Conrad replied. “General Maldonado will make the report to me. I will then summarize my findings and relay them to the rest of the council. They will go over them at their earliest convenience, and if they have any questions I am sure they will not hesitate to ask.”

The general spoke up. “I still don’t see why he has to be here! This doesn’t concern him.”

“All of the doings in Adrasta are of concern to my Order,” Monroe replied. “It is our duty to record the history of our people. I’ve spent my entire life doing exactly that.”

“You’ve spent your life being a pain in the neck,” Evan shot back.

“Enough!” Conrad Forbes interrupted. “Monroe is not the one who is on trial right now, general. I demand to know what happened today. What have you done?”

“What have I done? You should be asking him! I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t be absurd,” Conrad snapped. “You know perfectly well that Monroe had nothing to do with the collapse of the cliff. And don’t try to tell me that it was just a freak accident! That cliff gave way just moments after your convoy of tankers started climbing up the mountain road. There must be a connection.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Evan replied.

Conrad Forbes glared at him. “Do not trifle with me, general! You are walking on very thin ice right now. I am very tempted to fire you and replace you with someone who is actually competent. Your first idiotic attempt to wipe out the savages resulted in the poisoning of the entire landscape around this mountain. Thanks to you we are now forced to depend on robots to obtain our supplies! Your second attempt, with that neutron bomb of yours, resulted in the total destruction of the only forest in this area. You aren’t saving this planet; you’re destroying it! Now your carelessness has demolished the only road that leads out of Adrasta. I have warned you on six separate occasions that the mountain road had fallen into disrepair and needed maintenance. Your own men told you that it could not bear heavy loads and you ignored us. I hold you entirely responsible for what just happened.”

“There was no way we could have known,” Evan protested. “It was an accident. These things just happen sometimes.”

The councilman’s eyes narrowed. “There had better not be any more of these ‘accidents’, general. Your incompetence is truly staggering. That road is our lifeline. Without it we cannot bring supplies into Adrasta, and without supplies this city will die. You are going to fix that road and you are going to fix it immediately, do you understand?”

“Yes, but–”

“Enough! You are going to repair that road before you do any more work on making bombs. Let me repeat that: you are to stop the bomb-making project entirely until the road is fixed and we can start receiving supplies again. Moreover, once the road has been repaired you will not be allowed to destroy it again. In the future the road will be limited to one vehicle at a time.”

“But sir, be reasonable! I can send some of my men to fix the road. That’s not a problem. There’s no reason to stop the neutron bomb project. Both projects can be going on at the same time.”

“My decision is final,” Conrad replied.

“Fine,” Evan grumbled.

Monroe spoke up. “For the record, how long do you expect this to take? Is it going to be another six months before our access to the outside world is restored?”

“No. I’ll have the road rebuilt by July 8th. I should be able to have a new shipment of lithium in by the 22nd. This is going to push things back a bit.”

“By about a month, it sounds like,” Monroe commented.

“I will expect regular progress reports,” Conrad said. “I want that road rebuilt, and I want it rebuilt now. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Evan mumbled.

“Very well. Monroe, do you have anything to add?”

Monroe thought for a moment. “As I understand it, the neutron bomb project is on hold until the road is repaired, correct?”

“Yes, yes, that’s what I said,” Conrad replied, irritated. “I’ve already made myself quite clear on that point. Is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all,” Monroe said, pleased. Knowing that the general had been stopped for now gave him a tremendous sense of relief. He knew that it was not a permanent injunction, but it still gave him hope. There was always the chance that something else would happen, and the general would never be able to continue. At the very least, it was a promising development. The Rangers are starting to have an effect, he thought.

“Then this session is adjourned. You are both dismissed.”

* * * * *

After the meeting Monroe returned to his apartment. When he reached his home he saw that Doyle was waiting outside the front door. Monroe smiled when he saw him. “Ah, there you are! I was wondering if you might stop by. Please, come on in.”

The scribe unlocked the door and the two men went inside. Monroe then closed the door behind them, walked into the living room, and sat down in his favorite chair. Doyle took a seat across from him.

“So how did it go?” Doyle asked.

“Quite well, actually! Evan tried to blame the landslide on me, of course, but Conrad told him he was being ridiculous. The councilman was actually quite angry with the general. He blamed the landslide on the general’s convoy of lithium tankers and demanded that he fix the road before doing anything else. For the time being the neutron bomb project is officially dead.”

“That’s great news! I wasn’t expecting that. It sounds like the project has been set back quite a bit.”

“About a month, to be exact. Today’s events have indeed bought us some time. You were right to have hope.”

Doyle smiled. “As I said, it’s not over until it’s over. There is always a chance that something might come up. I just wasn’t expecting an accident that devastating. General Maldonado was extremely unlucky. That one landslide managed to wipe out his entire convoy of tankers and his entire supply of lithium.”

“Which is why the council thinks that his convoy caused the landslide. But I think they are wrong. I don’t think they had anything to do with it – well, not directly, anyway.”

“Really? So, do you think it was the Rangers, then?”

“I think there’s a very good chance of that,” Monroe replied thoughtfully. “You have to admit that the landslide was perfectly timed, and it only happened when the convoy was on its way home filled with lithium. If you were trying to wipe out the general’s lithium supply you really couldn’t have picked a better time, or a better accident. But there’s more. Right after the landslide occurred I saw a girl standing on top of the cliff right above where the landslide happened. As soon as I saw her she vanished, so I only caught a glimpse of her. But I’m sure that it was Amy.”

“That’s fascinating! So you think that Amy triggered the landslide on purpose?”

“I think that’s far more likely than the idea that the landslide just happened to occur at exactly the right moment. The road has been in poor repair for a long time, but trucks and tankers traverse it regularly; there’s no particular reason why it should collapse now. That cliff has also been there for generations. It seems quite unlikely that it would pick that exact moment to utterly collapse – and to collapse in such a spectacular way, too. No, I believe that the Rangers are responsible. Amy did promise that she was going to stop the general.”

“It still seems a bit strange,” Doyle remarked. “Why take that particular approach? The way things have turned out, everyone believes that it was simply an accident. The road will be rebuilt, new tankers will be made, and the general will simply try again. Nothing has been accomplished. If the Rangers are now guarding the tribes then why don’t they come out in the open and say so? That would put an end to all this foolishness.”

“I wouldn’t say that nothing was accomplished,” Monroe replied. “She did delay the project. Perhaps that’s all she wanted to do for now. What if the Rangers do intend to publicly reveal themselves but are waiting for the right moment?”

“What could they possibly be waiting on?”

“Oh, it’s impossible to tell. In 1867 they had a hundred star systems; they must have thousands, perhaps even millions by now. There’s no telling what they’ve become. There could be political dynamics at play that we can’t even imagine. But I am sure that they have their reasons. At any rate, it is encouraging. Perhaps the general really is going to be stopped after all. Amy seems to wield more power than I gave her credit for. Her immense confidence is backed by ability.”

“And then what?” Doyle asked. “Will the Rangers simply save the tribes and then go away? Can we honestly expect them to not seize control?”

“I don’t know. They haven’t seized control yet, and they’ve certainly had the opportunity. But, as you are so fond of saying, time will tell how all of this will shake out. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”