Inquisitor's Promise (Prologue: First Contact)
Grand Inquisitor Anchises Aquilanus had gathered the leaders of the Holy League’s Five Factions for a very special mission on the Moon. What will unfold?
Author’s note: Germanicus Publishing proudly presents ‘Inquisitor’s Promise’. It’s the first book I’ve ever finished and I’ll be putting them up here. I’m actually planning to do this much later but I’ve turned out to be more productive that I had expected. God willing, I’ll be putting in a chapter every day. There’s still some editing to be done, but I feel that there are no more plot holes in the story and it’s time that I tarry no longer.
Prologue: First Contact
Anchises Aquilanus looked outside the window, his hand holding the sword sheathed to his right side. He could see the Earth rising from the horizon. An orb of grey and green. It was a reminder of what he was here for. As Inquisitor, it was his duty to keep the Holy League together and protect the social order that the Church had painstakingly built for over two millennia.
“History says Earth used to have more blue, before the Dark Age,” heard Anchises. It was familiar voice. He turned around and saw his cousin approaching him.
Caius Aquilanus was a man of a similar stature to Anchises. Their similar faces could fool people into thinking that they were brothers. The most notable difference was Caius’ light blue hair when compared to the dark hair that Anchises sported, a reminder of a painful wound that House Aquilanus sustained generations ago.
“Not this again, Caius,” Anchises said. He had heard this before, and he was in no mood for political jockeying.
“My apologies,” Caius said. “I hope I’m not late.”
“You are,” Anchises said in matter-of-fact tone.
“Us deep ones never fit in well with the rest of the Holy League anyways.”
Anchises shook his head and said nothing. The Inquisitor led his cousin to a large room. Inside there was a large metallic gate. There were a group of men tinkering around with the gate, on the side was a hulking computer that was attached to the gate. But what was important to Anchises was the people who were here.
“Please take your seat, Caius,” Anchises told his cousin.
With Caius in the room, all five of the faction leaders were now present. Anchises scanned the table in front of him:
From the far left was Caius Aquilanus, the Grand Duke of Pacifica. To his right was Honda Nintendo, the Central Executive Officer or CEO of the Zaibatsu. CEO Honda was a rather fat man with a top hat that covered his balding dark hair. Right in the middle was Sir Juan Carlos de la Mancha, the Grand Knight of San Felipe. He was a tanned skin man with a medium-length dark hair and a handsome face. Further to the right was Norberto de Medici, the current Doge of Veneto. The Doge was a large burly man with a short black hair and a stern look. At the far right was Emperor Hannegan of the Texarkana Imperium. The Emperor of Texarkana was a regal man with hair that made him look like a lion, his whitening blond hair betrayed his age. Simply getting all five men in the same room was an achievement by itself.
“Uwee hee, the anticipation of this gate is killing me,” CEO Honda said gleefully. “I can only imagine the money to be made from the lands beyond!”
Personally, I’m more interested in fully mapping out the Electrosphere,” Doge Norberto said. “To think that it’s finally a reality.”
“Don’t forget that the Imperium is the temporal head of the Holy League,” Emperor Hannegan warned the two.
“Let us cool our wyverns, gentlemen,” Sir Juan Carlos interjected, trying to stop a confrontation before it began.
Meanwhile, Caius said nothing. In fact, the Grand Duke looked visibly disinterested in the conversations and in what was going on.
“What’s wrong, Caius?” Anchises asked. “You don’t seem to care about this.”
“I don’t,” Caius said flatly. “Nothing more infuriating than people fretting over space exploration when we have those in need down at Earth.”
“Yes. I know of what you think of the Electrosphere. But then why are you here?”
“You know why!” Caius snapped.
Anchises winced and gulped in reaction; he knew where this conversation was going. He needed to tread carefully here.
“We can’t rush these things, Caius. Aeneas is just like his mother, a hopeless romantic,” Anchises said apologetically.
“I think it’s you who is the hopeless romantic, Anchises,” Caius muttered.
But Anchises would not be able to respond to Caius as a large noise boomed throughout the room. A blinding ray of light engulfed the room before it receded, revealing a blue tiny ball like creature. One of its noodle like arms was held forward towards the group.
“Stop this madness!” the creature shouted.
Anchises recognized the creature, he was a recordkeeper. It was not often to see one outside of the Great Pyramid. Anchises stepped forward to the creature.
“Who are you?” Anchises asked carefully as he moved ever closer to the recordkeeper.
“My name matters not,” the blue creature answered. “What matters is for you to keep that gate closed.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Anchises answered. “We have received approval from the Holy Father for this.”
“You know not of what you are doing!”
“We’ve heard this before. Vague warnings of apocalyptic dangers will get you nowhere, recordkeeper.”
The recordkeeper then took out a small pistol. It was a raygun, a recordkeeper’s weapon of choice. He then pointed his gun at the table where the five faction leaders were sitting.
“What’s going on here?” Honda asked in concern. Out of the five leaders, he looked to be the one who was in panic.
“Shut up!” Norberto said as he shoved the CEO.
“Yes,” Juan Carlos added. “Leave this issue to the Inquisitor.”
Anchises took out his sword in return and pointed it at the recordkeeper. “What are you doing?” Anchises asked sternly.
“If I can’t stop you by dialogue, then I must do so by force!” the recordkeeper declared. “Lord Inquisitor, you can save their lives if you will only cancel the opening.”
But before Anchises could answer, the Emperor of Texarkana spoke up. “The Inquisition does not negotiate with terrorists, Sir Anchises.”
“The nerve of you to tell Lord Anchises how to do his job!” Caius declared indignantly.
“Shut up!” Norberto cried once more.
“Make your decision, Lord Inquisitor,” the recordkeeper commanded. “What will it be?”
Anchises scanned his surroundings. Given the situation, there was only one choice to be made.
Anchises lunged his sword at the recordkeeper. It was so swift that the recordkeeper had little time to react. The ray-gun dropped to the floor. The faction leaders were saved.
Impaled by the sword, the recordkeeper looked to Anchises; his face was one of shock. The recordkeepers had always been impeccable and loyal sons of the Church. An Inquisitor would sooner raise his arms against a priest than a recordkeeper, or so he had thought.
“You have doomed us all…” the recordkeeper cried weakly. The creature then breathed his last.
Anchises looked down on the slain recordkeeper. He frowned at how things had unfolded, but he could see no other way to resolve the situation.
“Well done, Sir Inquisitor,” Norberto said. “Now let us open the gate.”
Anchises glared at the Doge. It took every bit of his restraint for the Inquisitor to keep his wits and not snap at the Venetian’s insensitivity.
“But what about the recordkeeper?” Anchises asked, motioning to the body.
“Yes. Yes,” the Doge said as he waved his hand around dismissively. “We’ll give him a proper burial don’t you worry.”
Anchises watched on as the recordkeeper’s body was taken away. The Inquisitor wondered if the Order of the Recordkeepers was behind this attack, or if this was simply the work of a lone deranged gunman. But that was an issue for another time.
The men working on the machine were now finished and the gate was ready to be opened. Everyone in the room watched in anticipation of what was about to happen. A blue light then came out of the gate, indicating that it was being activated. But then there was a burst, and the gate was deactivated once more.
“What is the meaning of this!?” Emperor Hannegan demanded.
As if on cue, a man entered the room. A Venetian soldier, he was wearing a military uniform that sported a lion’s emblem.
“Lord Norberto,” the soldier said. “We have detected a new Electrosphere portal forming up some distance from the Moon.”
“What!” the Doge said in shock. “Impossible!”
As Anchises heard this, he was struck by a sense of horror. He was no physicist, but he knew of the workings of the Electrosphere. A pocket dimension of electricity located between the Earth and the Moon; its origins were shrouded in mystery; the Electrosphere predated even the Dark Age Civilization. It was where most space explorations were being done given the special location of the Earth. Like most people, the Inquisitor had assumed that Electrosphere portals were set in stone, something that could not be created nor destroyed. The formation of one could only mean that something powerful or ancient had been released.
Anchises gazed his eyes to where the recordkeeper was slain. It couldn’t have been a coincidence. That poor creature knew of the dangers, even if he couldn’t articulate it effectively. The Inquisitor remembered the warnings that the recordkeepers had told the Church to keep that gate shut.
“What have we done,” Anchises said ruefully.
But before anyone could truly inquire of the nature of the portal, the metallic gate in the room activated again. The blue glow appeared once more.
Anchises took out his sword, wary of what would come out of the gate. The Inquisitor moved towards the gate while everyone else stepped back.
A humanoid figure stepped forward. It was that of a man, but not any man Anchises had seen before. The man had a blue skin and waves of electricity emanating from his body. The man was of an imposing height, easily taller than everyone else in the room.
Anchises wondered if this man was going to be a threat; he certainly looked like one.
In contrast to Anchises’ tense battle posture, the blue man was visibly relaxed. He waved his right hand as if to ease the Inquisitor’s suspicions.
“Greetings Terran,” the man said. “We have been waiting for you.”
Inquisitor! I am shocked, what did your mother tell you about touching ancient alien artefacts!
Well then, game's afoot!