MIRATHATON The Last Colony Chapter X

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I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X X | Sanctum   He woke with heavy lids, fighting to regain control over his limbs. His arms hung numbly from his body. In fright he looked down over himself and noticed he was strapped to a chair, but testing the restraints he found they were not as tight that they would need to be to keep him from freeing himself.   Yet again this was a different location altogether. The light was even brighter than in the hospital. He could hear voices behind the source of this light. It was directed at his face, blocking his view. He tried to speak but all that dropped out of his mouth was unintelligible drivel. His tongue felt ballooned in his mouth.   As he was trying to detect any signs of movement the light began to shift and was sliced into delicate segments that appeared more like panes of illuminated glass. A clicking noise accompanied the readjustment of the shine away from his face. The room darkened only a fraction and allowed him to see where he was and who was with him.   He was placed in the very centre of a large round room with high ceilings and narrow bright windows that exuded visible strips of golden light. Right across the room he saw a platform, a stage with a large crescent-shaped table on it. At this table sat ten upright figures in identical gleaming robes of white fabrics with golden threads. Their short silver hair wrapped in luxurious curls around their beautiful heads. Their oval faces were of a timeless age, they seemed to emanate a cool and crystal clear aura that allowed for no bad thought ever to emerge in their presence.   Officially they called themselves senators, the people often called them judges, sometimes the Saints. They were the caretakers of the remainders of mankind, their wisdom had made their ongoing existence possible. Noa gasped as he realized where 102

he had been brought. He was in the presence not just of the greatest minds in the colony but those who reigned over the last humans in the universe for more than 500 years. And that was the true miracle, their true secret. They had knowledge that mortals could not understand.   He would have liked to fall to his knees in honour of their magnificence. The stress made him dizzy and he almost toppled over with his chair. But out of nowhere firm hands dropped on his shoulders holding him steady.   The Senator occupying the centre seat raised his chin slightly and talked down at him across the length of his perfectly straight nose.   »There, there.« he said. »You have arrived.«   Noa’s face grimaced a smile as he heard that voice so clear as a bell’s ring.   »I have arrived.« he said, his tongue paddling the words like a water wheel. Apprehensively he rubbed his chin at his shoulder, scared that he might be drooling. He hated himself for sounding so dull, not at all like his usual self. »Why have I… arrived?«   They looked at each other with amusement.   »Give him a few more minutes.« the Senator said. »Then detach him.«   Noa tried to bow but the hands on his shoulders prevented him. By what he was able to see of them, he figured that there must have been two counsellors behind him. They waited patiently. The Senators smiled down at Noa and he smiled back at them.   »Noa ImAdha.« said the Senator after a while. »Do you know where you are at present?«   Noa nodded respectfully.   »The Sanctum, Your Honour.« There was a bitter taste in his mouth he could not swallow hard enough to get rid of.   »Then you know who I am?«   »Yes, I remember you.« he answered. »Laisandar.«   He had not uttered this name in a decade. He had seen this figure a long time ago, before he was released into the colony but 103

he still looked the same by the very hair on his head. Noa became nervous as he realized that ever since he had entered the work force he had hardly ever thought of him or any of the others. On the very few occasions when he had heard their voices at proclamations in the colony he had remembered their faces and more-so their gravity, but he did not recall the childhood experiences he made in their presence. He prayed that they would not ask him questions about those days until he had restored his memories in full.   »Very well.« Laisandar said and he nodded his consent to the assistants. They came around into Noa’s field of vision and began to remove the straps, the counsellor he had been talking to during his stay in the hospital and another one whom Noa did not know. Neither of them looked at him. He was handed a large glass of water which he drained in one draught. Even the water in this place tasted like light. His head began to clear instantly. He thanked the counsellor, who took the glass and ignored his words, so he thanked the Senators instead. They just smiled.   »Well, then…« Laisandar said in his fabulous voice. »… we have a lot to talk about.«   Noa looked up at the figures like a lost little child. He opened his mouth to ask a question, but the Senator spoke again.   »Bring him in!« he boomed. Noa dared to turn around and follow the counsellors with his eyes. The two men stepped to the back of the room, opening the two wings of a pearly gate that reached almost to the ceiling. Noa sighed in relief as he recognized the person who had just been revealed to be standing behind the doors.   Arn Genh walked into the room and towards the Judges’ table while his feet seemed to become heavier with each step. He wore his uniform and cradled his injured arm in a cast in his unharmed hand. He only looked at Noa in passing, thin-lipped, not exactly close to a smile.   »Arn Genh.« the Senator said. »Come closer!«   Arn Genh followed the invitation with some effort. He looked 104

like he had only just learned to walk. Noa realized that he too must have been dozed before entering this compound. Nobody was allowed to remember the way to the holiest and most protected places in the colony.   »Does your arm heal well?« the Senator asked gently. Arn Genh forced himself to look friendly.   »Thank you, Your Honour.« he stuttered. »It is doing much better. Soon I will be able to perform my duties again.«   »We are pleased to hear that.« said the Senator under the approving nods of his peers. »We shall not occupy you for long today.«   »Thank you.« Arn Genh said, visibly sweating.   »Do you recognize this man, Arn Genh?« Laisandar asked, indicating Noa. The manager turned his head and glared at him for a brief moment.   »Yes, I do, Your Honour.« he said. »His name is Noa ImAdha and he has been under my supervision in the position of Okaian until two weeks ago.«   Still Noa did not know what this was about, but he was glad to hear that his promotion had been confirmed even though he was unable to start on his new job. Arn Genh’s presence had given him hope that the reward would truly bring something positive to his new life.   »Tell us about the events as you witnessed them on the day of the attack, Arn Genh.« the Senator demanded. Arn Genh began to talk. Noa listened as attentively to his detailed account as the Senators did. When he arrived at the memory of the blackout, his voice began to shake.   »I don’t recall exactly, what he said.« Arn Genh admitted. »He asked me whether there was someone else out there with him, I believe. So I checked the scan and informed him that that was not so.«   »What did he mean by that question?« the Senator asked. »Why would he ask?«   »I saw something.« Noa blurted out, interrupting the 105

exchange, but he fell silent when he noticed the look Laisandar was giving him.   »You are positive, that there was nobody else in the vicinity of this man’s location?« the Senator asked Arn Genh with a firm voice. »No one, not even the other Okaians?«   Arn Genh’s mouth snapped shut as he realized that he had not thought about something so evident as the meaning of the word nobody.   »In hindsight…« he spluttered. »…I must admit that it seemed so.«   »Where were the others then, good man?« Laisandar urged the manager. »There should have been two more Okaians outside gate 7.«   Arn Genh stretched his neck as if his collar had unexpectedly grown tight.   »They did not appear to be there.« he said hoarsely.   »And this did not make you wonder in the least?«   The tone in the Senator’s voice still remained rather pleasant even though the questions he asked were not. Noa did not care for it, but he wanted an answer to this riddle like everyone else in the room.   »Of course it made me wonder!« Arn Genh exclaimed nervously. »But almost immediately afterwards the lights went out and I had something else to worry about!«   The Senators looked at each other with something that almost amounted to disappointment.   »What did you do after the lights went out?« was their next question.   »I tried to send a status report, but nothing worked.« Arn Genh said in a calmer voice. »So I opened the door of my booth with the manual emergency key and checked the gate with my hand lamp.«   »Did you see anyone?«   »There was no one in the streets.« Arn Genh said. »I tried to signal with my lamp, so the cultivators might see it and find their 106

way back. But I figured they were just too far away.«   »But this one did find his way back.« the Senator said looking at Noa.   »Obviously.« Arn Genh said. »And I let him in. Then I got hurt…«   »Did he hurt you?« Laisandar interjected.   »No, I fell.« Arn Genh said appalled.   »Did he push you?«   »No, the hatch did!«   Noa sat there frowning. It was certainly laudable that the Senators were so eager to get to the bottom of this mystery, but he did not think that Arn Genh deserved such scrutiny after having performed his duty to the letter in saving a worker from a terrible fate. The poor man was streaming with cold sweat and it was a pitiful sight.   »Go on.« said the Senator in a slightly annoyed tone.   »We were just picking up the pieces, when this band of people came around a corner.«   »Where did they come from?«   »They came from a little up the road that leads to gate 6.« Arn Genh said forthcoming.   »Where they drenched? Did they look like they came from the water?«   »No.« he said after reflecting. »They were completely dry.«   »Did they have weapons?«   »They had bats and burners.« Arn Genh said. »One of them carried a sword.«   »This… Sint Rocca.«   The wall behind the Senators lightened up with the oversized picture of a man’s square face. It was a face of such coarse brutality that it horrified Noa much more than at the very moment he had met the man and had a sword held to his throat. He did not recall Sint Rocca as a particularly pleasant or personable figure. At their second encounter he had presented himself as overly aggressive, but Noa had since thought that this attitude might have been a 107

bluff. That he had watched the man die only a few hours prior to this, made his representation in this room seem even more absurd and eerie. Something was amiss.   The portrait was undeniably that of Sint Rocca and yet it was not. The sneering mouth and the dead grey eyes seemed to effuse a diabolical coldness that the man had not shown in the flesh, not even while he looked ready to murder another human being. While Arn Genh kept recapitulating his experience, Noa stared at this face and allowed it to invade his thoughts.   This was the same man who on that fateful day had caught his attention as he jumped the queue ahead of Noa, started an argument with a manager and then went on a murderous spree through the dark city, followed by others, like a rebel leader. An idea had begun to emit sparks in Noa’s head as he looked into the dead man’s eyes. This idea could explain, what this madman had tried to do, that, what had seemed like insanity had really been planned and prepared for a long time. This face on the wall practically screamed the answer at him, but he was unable to hold on to it.   »He wanted to cut off my head!« Arn Genh still seemed to shake with fright remembering the event.   »And this man?« the Senator asked. »What did he do?«   »He told them to let me go.« Arn Genh said. »There was a skirmish and he asked them what else I should have done with my life or something like that. And of course I told them that I would rather die for my great leaders and my colony than anything else.«   That was some big fibbing, but Noa was not resentful. The Senators could be pretty intimidating, he had learned today.   »Then this person Sint Rocca said that Noa ImAdha should take care of me then and when they left, he locked me in my booth and ran away.«   Arn Genh dropped his gaze when he had finished his report. At least he did not add how Sint Rocca had welcomed Noa to the beautiful new world, that he and his followers were aiming to 108

create, because that would certainly have been misunderstood.   Arn Genh took a deep breath and apparently, what he had to say now, required all the courage he could muster.   »This man, Noa ImAdha, has saved my life.« he said with a little bit more substance. »I feel the need to emphasize this. Without him I would not be standing here today.«   Noa felt a sudden rush of affection for the manager.   »You saved my life before that.« he could not keep himself from reminding everyone in the room of this fact. Arn Genh dropped his eyes in what looked like deep remorse.   »You may leave.« the Senator said. Arn Genh bowed before them and turned to the door. When he passed Noa, he gave him a look of such alarm that it shattered Noa’s encouraging smile into pieces.   »Is what you heard in this interview the truth?« Laisandar asked after Arn Genh had left the hall.   Noa hesitated for a moment, still irritated by the manager’s display. The way this interview had developed did not make him feel secure at all. The pleasant little conversation seemed to have turned into a dead serious trial and he had not even been told yet what he was charged with.   »I do believe so.«   »What do you know of this man Sint Rocca?«   »I do not know him.« Noa said immediately.   »You never met him before?« Laisandar wanted to know.   »I have seen him before.« Noa admitted. »Only once. In fact, this was only a couple of hours earlier when I waited for an appointment with my manager.«   Sint Rocca’s face finally vanished off the wall and was replaced by one of Kee Maha. At the size in which it was projected onto the wall, her face looked superbly colourful.   »Doa Kee Maha.« Laisandar said, his voice had changed. He sounded positively enraged now. Noa was taken aback by the transformation.   »Witnesses have reported that you got into an argument with 109

her before the attack.«   Noa opened his mouth in astonishment.   »Pardon?« he uttered disbelievingly. »What kind of an argument?«   »Do you deny what the witnesses claim?« Laisandar pushed.   »What witnesses?« Noa asked back.   »Witnesses who wish to remain unnamed.«   »How can there be witnesses to something that never happened?« Noa exclaimed in confusion and upcoming anger.   »Do you deny the facts?« Laisandar asked. Noa did not know what to say, being confronted with facts that did not fit his memory in the least.   »Am I being charged?« he asked back after a second of hesitation, panic rising in his voice.   All of them were giving him their undivided attention now, staring down at him. He felt cold chills run down his spine when he noticed one or two of them suppressing a smirk.   »Noa ImAdha.« Laisandar said in a fatherly tone. »Why else would you be here?«   »What are the charges?« Noa demanded to know.   »Be assured that we do not leave our seclusion for the likes of which have been found guilty of subversion and given the drowning.« the Judge scolded him. “For you we make an exception.”   Noa was sweating now. He shook his head vehemently even before Laisandar had finished his sentence. His brain he felt was trying to delete the memory of what he had just heard because he was unable to make sense of it.   »I never argued with Kee Maha.« he said as loudly and clearly as he could instead. »That was not me, but Sint Rocca.«   »About eighty people at the managing centre witnessed the argument and some of them identified you positively from your personnel file.«   »And I am telling you that it wasn’t me, but the man who jumped the line to get ahead of me!« Noa shouted indignantly. 110

»The sentinels certainly have footage of that!«   »No sentinels were present.«   »That’s not true!« Noa exclaimed. Surely this would make them see the error in their records, he thought.   »Guard your voice!« the Judge ordered coolly. Noa shut himself up.   »If Doa Kee Maha had received Sint Rocca, even if he had been unannounced, she would have logged him in her registrar.« Laisandar explained calmly. »That was her duty as a manager. It is not your fault that you have no understanding of administrative procedures, but stop lying to us!«   Noa stared at him in bewilderment.   »But…« he began. »…why not ask Kee Maha herself and she will tell you that I am not lying? I am a witness to this event myself and I am telling you the man she argued with wore a red uniform. I don’t even own one for obvious reasons!«   The Judges stared down at him as if they could strike him dead with lightning bolts from their eyes.   »Doa Kee Maha was murdered.« the leader of the board said emphatically. »Like one-thousand-two-hundred-and-eighty-seven others.«   Noa fell back in his chair. It was as if a crater had just opened under his feet to suck him in. No one had told him during the entire time that he had spend in the hospital. No one ever let slip one hint of the magnitude that this event had really carried and the damage that had been done. Now he knew, that if he had been given the choice, he would not have wanted to know. But they did not intent to give him a choice and finally shared all of the facts.   Not all the victims had died in violent encounters, many had accidents resulting from the blackout. Missing cultivators, engineers that had fallen to their deaths, lab workers who had suffocated, the list was longer than Noa could have imagined. When the rebellion had been averted, people kept dying of their injuries. These people had all been dead even before the sentinels 111

started to round up and arrest the suspects. That meant in total that almost 1,500 people had died in the past 14 days, that was a big chunk broken away from the population. The biggest catastrophe since the plague. And Noa had known nothing of it all this time.   »Sint Rocca.« Laisandar said finally. »A lowly lieutenant in this great scheme brought about by poisoned minds.«   The others nodded in agreement. Noa stared at these sparkling personalities in this beautifully open room, flooded with warm light. He would have liked to tell them that he whole-heartedly agreed, but he was mortified.   »What are the charges?« he whispered.   »Now that we were able to reconstruct the events at gate 7, we know your role in all of this.« the Judge declared. »Only someone very high up in the ranks of this conspiracy of criminals could have ordered Sint Rocca to stand down on his plan to murder a manager and hand over a hostage. Why you chose to spare Arn Genh of all people, we will find out sooner or later.«   »What are the charges?« Noa kept reiterating. His voice had broken out of the confinements of his awareness.   »The charge against you, Noa ImAdha?« the Judge finally disclosed with malice in his voice. »For starters, terroristic mass murder.« 112