Inquisitor's Promise (Act Two, Chapter Eleven)
Aeneas has to keep his promises. His father's mission will be completed. And while he's at it, he will become Galatea's lord and Inquisitor. But love and politics are an explosive combination.
Chapter Eleven: Key to Victory
“Aeneas, I have been very thinking of what you told to me.”
“Go on.”
“When you said that things can’t make itself, it sounded like what Koke had preached.”
“Ah,” Aeneas said knowingly. “That’s why you find it hard to accept what I said.”
“Yes,” Pep responded. “We Lektros believe that the Great Explosion created the chaotic world. But then Koke asked us ‘what happened before the Great Explosion?’ And of course, we told him that there is another world and another Great Explosion. And Aeneas, do you know of his rebuttal to that?”
“It’s Great Explosions all the way back,” Aeneas stated.
Pep looked at Aeneas in shock. “How did you know?”
“Just a guess, we have similar saying back on Earth.”
“I see.”
At the moment, Aeneas and Pep were at an elevator to the Great Library that Pep had talked of prior. With the vaunted structure being located right below the Lektros Dome, Aeneas left the cleanup of the battlefield to the others and made his way down.
Upon reaching the library, Aeneas looked in awe at the size of it. The Inquisitor did not expect such a meticulous keeping of records from the Lektros.
But as Pep told Aeneas, keeping records in solid ground allowed the Lektros to remember their history in a land of storms. The irony that the Lektros had been doing a better job of keeping their records than the people of Earth was not lost on Aeneas.
Here, Aeneas seek to find the key to victory in his fight against the oncoming Grey Globe.
Thankfully for the Inquisitor, he did not have to spend a long time looking for the right books as Pep was able to quickly locate the relevant materials.
“Here are all the information written of the Terrans who had arrived in the Lektros Dimension two thousand and four hundred years ago,” Pep said as he motioned towards a stack of books and scrolls on table.
“Twenty-four hundred years ago?” Aeneas asked in confusion. “I thought our people met three thousand years ago.”
“I was approximating,” Pep said nonchalantly. “I figured, close enough.”
“You’re missing six hundred years. How is that close enough?” Aeneas asked rhetorically.
Pep shrugged in response. “The exact passage of time matters very little to the Lektros.”
Chalking up the whole thing to cultural difference, Aeneas chose to drop the subject and move on to the next one.
“How did you even know how to find the right information?” Aeneas asked. “You even translated them for us!”
“Mr. Anchises put me up to it.”
This was a shock to Aeneas. “Papa did that?”
Pep nodded. “Of course. He had been planning of ways to defeat this Grey Globe. Before, well…”
Thus, Aeneas read on the books and scrolls pertaining to what had happened between the Lektros and the Terrans. They turned out to be dry and more boring than Aeneas had anticipated, so boring that Aeneas welcomed Pep’s interruption.
“I have a question, Aeneas.”
“Go for it.”
“What was your people like three thousand years ago?”
Aeneas put his hands to his chin, deep in thought. “I honestly don’t know much, Pep. But they were not good people. We call that time the Dark Age of Technology.”
“Dark Age… of Technology?” Pep looked at Aeneas in puzzlement. “How can you have technology and have dark age? Makes no sense.”
“They- we were a decadent people, Pep. We used technology to hurt people, to perform various abominations, tamper with the human body, all manners of bad things,” Aeneas explained.
“Perhaps technology is not the answer to human problems,” Pep said.
“No. At least not by itself.”
Aeneas then turned back towards the books. Knowing that the fate of the Holy League hung upon these boring texts, Aeneas forced himself to pay attention. Soon, his studiousness paid off. The Inquisitor learned that the Dark Age Civilization had seek something that existed only in the Lektros dimension, something called alondite.
“What are those?” Aeneas asked.
“Alondite? They’re common stuff you can find here,” Pep answered nonchalantly. “They’re usually flying in the storms. We make trinkets with them. Not all that valuable.”
“But still, for the Dark Age Civilization to seek them out must mean they’re important somehow,” Aeneas stated.
The Inquisitor looked through one of the scrolls. His eyes perked up when he saw the drawing of a cannon; attached to the canon was a sleek starship, sleeker than the Venetian-built Holy League starships. Next to them was an image of a grey spherical object, the Grey Globe.
“What’s this, Pep?”
“Looks to be a weapon,” Pep said.
“Indeed,” Aeneas said excitedly. “It says that the Terrans wished to make cannons that shoot alondite to deal with the grey sphere.”
“You mean the Grey Globe?”
“Yes,” Aeneas acknowledged before he continued. “The Lektros and the Terrans worked together to build these cannons and attach them to their ships. The alondite possessed unique elemental qualities that hampered the Grey Globe’s self-replicating nanites which allowed that accursed thing to destroy the Holy League fleets with ease.”
“Uhm,” Pep said uneasily. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Aeneas said, his excitement remaining, “that the alondite is the key to defeating the Grey Globe! If we can pepper the Grey Globe with enough alondite, its greatest strength will be taken away…”
“… allowing the Holy League to take it out,” Pep finished.
“Yes, and the only way to do it is by building the cannons here,” Aeneas said, pointing towards the drawing in the scroll.”
“I see,” Pep said. “I will see to it that we gather together as much alondite as we can. I still owe you for helping me against Koke.”
Having received and recorded all of the needed information, Aeneas returned back to the Lektros Dome. As the two of them were on the elevator going back up, Pep looked deep in thought. And then he suddenly spoke, as if something was possessing to do so.
“Aeneas, do you have another room for someone else in your army?” Pep asked.
“What?” Aeneas said in shock. “You mean to join me?”
“I do. I wish to be part of your journey at Earth,” Pep declared. “I wish to learn more about your people, especially your religion!”
“But Pep, you’re as good as the ruler of the Lektros now.” Aeneas pointed out.
“Do not worry about that, my father will take care of governing the dimension in my stead,” Pep said nonchalantly.
Aeneas thought hard. Pep would certainly be a useful asset in his journey to unite the Holy League. He had seen firsthand the power of a Lektros Archon. And besides, Aeneas still had to deal with his ‘Giulia problem’ and Pep had shown himself to be a solution to that.
On the other hand, it seemed rather irresponsible for the ruler of the Lektros to abandon his people to go on an adventure. With all of the other Archons dead, surely things would be somewhat chaotic in the Lektros Dimension.
But Aeneas saw Pep once more. His countenance betrayed that spiritual thirst that he had seen when they first met, the need for the transcendence that the bankrupt religion of the Lektros was unable to provide.
“Welcome to the team, Pep,” Aeneas said as he extended his hand to his interlocutor. “I’m glad to have you aboard.”
“Thank you, Aeneas,” Pep said as he shook Aeneas’ hand.
As the two men had finally reached the lobby of the Lektros Dome once more, they were approached by two women: Lavinia and Giulia.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Aeneas,” Lavinia said.
“What is it, Vinia?” Aeneas asked.
“I bet Giulia wants to tell you that she loves me, Aeneas,” Pep joked, chuckling as he spoke.
“Hah! In your dreams, infidel!” Giulia snapped.
“Anyways,” Lavinia interjected. “We’ve gotten a message from Texarkana.”
Aeneas was puzzled. “The Imperial Capital?”
“Yes,” Giulia answered. “War had broken out. Some military officers decided to revolt and march their army to Texarkana. Our assistance had been requested, Captain.”
“Not so fast!” Aeneas said in confusion. “Why would Emperor Hannegan ask our help for something that he can deal with himself?”
“Not the Emperor, Captain” Giulia clarified. “It was Princess Omaha.”