3058 C.E. commenced with the onset of those in Besten who were in the
final throws of preparation for the invasion of Pomperaque.
Throughout the year, while the plans for invasion were being finalized,
Harvard Bartlett ordered the armies into a building programme, to make
Besten and the other major cities in the alignment larger and more
beautiful than imaginable.
The men in the armies welcomed the building programme that Harvard had
engaged them to do. They didn't want to feel the anxiety and the
excitement of war until the war itself was fought. So the men, as they
created great architectural masterpieces, left their worries of death
while they welded their concentrations on this new work.
In the days, weeks and months that passed, Besten and many other cities
grew to a majesty, remembered only from the clouded, nightmarish dreams
of the late Twentieth Century.
The northern cities became the jewels of the continent, and from all
around the continent, every type of human went to them to purpose trade
and alliance, and many treaties were entered into and signed by the
respective parties involved.
Lloyd and Boyce discussed, with Harvard, the proposed routes that they
had some choice on which to use, on their way back to Phoride and
Pomperaque.
Boyce was eager to return and take what was his, and Lloyd also felt
that now would be the best time since the ArchBishop had also begun a
great building programme in Pomperaque, soon after Besten commenced
with their's.
In Pomperaque, Manguino's spies described to him that Harvard
Bartlett's army was being used to build up the cities, and that they
grew at a surprising rate.
On the advice from his wife Eckma and several of the noble Cardinals,
Manguino thought that the idea of an army building force was brilliant,
and he thought that Besten had engaged itself in such a programme only
to rise above Pomperaque, as an economic power.
He set Phoride's entire army to work in building the city into one
great mass of moving machinery and light.
Using the knowledge available in the gadgets that had once belonged to
Brook, towering buildings were built and were powered by currents of
energy -- electricity.
Light illuminated the evenings in the city of Pomperaque from tall
glass posts that were filled with conductive gases that glowed when
energy was passed through them, and the citizens travelled around in
little propelled carts with wheels that were set upon endless tubes of
steel that also utilized the same electrical forces.
The city's incinerators were converted to produce the power since the
furnaces constantly
burned some kind of waste material throughout the entire day and night,
and huge storage batteries, such as those in the Blue Mansion, were
built to preserve energy for emergency use.
Pomperaque grew into a grandeur never before seen by those living
there, and it hardly took a year to complete.
The sudden boost in the lifestyles of those in Phoride made many of
Phoride's citizens, from the peasantry to the elite Prominants feel
alive again, and many returned to praising Manguino.
Manguino was proud of his own brilliance and praised himself.
He had taken notice of the words spoken to him by the Seer, Jessuum
Benitar, and his spies' news about the north compiling an army was all
he needed to order the male citizens into a compulsory army of his own.
Throughout the first years of the arms build-up all the women, even
those wives of the Prominent elite, had to do the work of their
husbands, as-well-as their own domestic chores while their husbands
trained to fight a war which gave no indications would ever be fought.
Now, however, the new city of Pomperaque stood as a monument of
strength, and with this, Manguino released the Prominent men from their
service duties and most of them returned home to their wives and
families. Only a few of the Prominents, who had personal gains from
staying in the service, remained as the generals.
There was an odd contentment in Pomperaque and the people had a
tolerant and even kindly regard for their Almighty ArchBishop, and they
thanked him for improving their lives, unaware that the improvements
were all made for his own benefit, and not really intended for them.
The entire Northern United Alignment heard of the progress that
Manguino forced in Phoride and they also heard about the common
people's change of heart towards him. Now they all favoured him.
Harvard, thought, felt confident that the Alignments' forces could
annihilate the Phoridene armies, and before his son and Boyce left
Besten for Phoride, he wished them God's speed and safety.
"We will send Empal with word of mobilization." Lloyd said to Harvard.
"It is a long way back to Pomperaque but we should save several days in
travel, taking this shorter route." He pointed-out the route on a
small map while they made their final plans. His finger etched the
line through Krolalin's Dark Forest and other possibly hostile lands.
"Take care in those places." Harvard cautioned. "Though these nations
are small and have agreed to let you pass, we cannot trust them with
their promises. Remember, some are friends of the ArchBishop. In
consideration of this, you will first go to Alugean and get proper
weapons to carry on your trip."
Boyce and Lloyd both agreed to Harvard's request and they left on their
long journey, on foot.
It was unanimously decided that the men's journey would be taken this
way in order to confuse the attention of any spies that were watching.
Machine travel, and even travel by horse, would have directed attention
upon them.
A small performing caravan was sent south, as were tinkers of every
kind, and all knew their purpose for going to Pomperaque.
Lloyd and Boyce made their way slightly to the south-west towards
Alugean where they were to check the production of weapons and receive
some for their personal use during the trip.
When the height of people leaving Besten was reached the two men left
the city for their day's jaunt to the vault library in the Alugean
Mountain. To break the stress of their exertions, they spoke of many
things during their first day of travel. The talks were mostly
centred on what they thought Pomperaque would look like after all the
changes. Another topic that lasted them was their views on Manguino's
illogical assumption that Brook had cursed him and that it was the
cause for his women baring him monstrosities. They spoke of Eckma and
her, one day, turning into an almost appealing woman and Boyce
speculated that the ArchBishop had found in Brook's gadgets the
formula to the age stunning drug -- originally designed by the fourth
wife of Hosea Jones, called Ruth.
While the day waned and Alugean grew larger, and closer, Boyce and
Lloyd shared a worry that they both had about the invasion that they
had planned.
It came to Boyce's mind early in the day that, when the war was under
way, many innocent women and children would probably be caught up in it
and would die.
Lloyd understood Boyce's feelings but knew that nothing could be done
about it; but Boyce really knew that Lloyd wanted to taste vengeance
through the death of one particular woman.
Lloyd considered Eckma an evil woman. A woman of tasteless love that
sank into deeper evil through her marriage and violent consummation.
He knew that the loss of those many ugly and pretty children, at their
birth, drew no tears from her.
Lloyd wanted to see her die, with her child and with Manguino, and yet,
he did not want to kill them himself, although the temptations was
great for him to do so.
His reasoning for this judgement of her was simple and Boyce accepted
it.
"This past time that she gave birth, Boyce, she gave birth to twins.
One was the beautiful son child that both she and the ArchBishop
desired. The other twin, whatever sex it was, was drowned in a pool
of water by its mother, because it was hideous looking." Lloyd
explained to Boyce. "She held that child's head under water, watching
it writhe and convulse, and she enjoyed watching it die, since she had
never before killed something that was alive." Boyce was quiet and he
just listened. "What's more, my friend, the water was rain water.
Can you imagine?"
They turned onto a short path that lead to the hidden entrance doors
and Lloyd punched-in the numbers as taught to them by Brook, a decade
earlier.
"I remember the rain that touched me. It wasn't much but it made my
sanity depart from me. I can imagine how it must've been for the
child, drowned in such fluid."
Lloyd also remembered that night when his injured form was given
comfort. It was the night when Boyce first proved his courage by
isolating himself in his room after the rain fell on him.
The doors of the entrance slid open and they walked down a lengthy
hallway that was dark, but also oddly shiny, until they came into an
enormous cavern that hosted a number of gigantic machines of knowledge,
and around them were a number of Bestenese scientists learning how to
operate them.
They made their way to the other side of the busy cavern to a flight of
stairs and descended them until they came out to a large area that at
one time had stored food and other supplies. Now it was converted to
the production of weapons, and all the other contents that were once
within were taken down to another storage level.
They sat down their gear then headed to where the labs were and walked
into one. The endless number of workers, that worked on weaponry in
front of them, paid little mind to the two men.
Inside the lab doors the two men stopped, looked at a red light and
became encircled by a smoky mist that smelled like flatulence.
They held their breaths until the smoky mist subsided and a green light
came on, and with it the door before them slowly swung ajar. The full
smelling smoke had actually made their bodies and clothing free of
bacteria, since what they were now entering was a very clean area.
Just as they pushed the door all the way then closed it after they were
in, one of the supervising technicians, in charge of small side-arms
production, approached and welcomed them.
"My Lords Bartlett and Scullion-Blue, welcome!" said the tall dark man
in the white plastic oversuit. "You are here just in time. We have
two little gems to give you!"
He offered them the direction of the test lab and they went to it.
"It seems that my father has sent to you some more men, Burman?" Lloyd
questioned Burman, in passing.
"Yes, Lloyd. They have been invaluable. Already we have attained a
forty percent increase in our production levels and only three percent
of that is rejected as battle perfect." Burman sounded proud and Boyce
was pleased.
Boyce remembered the day that he and Lloyd first set foot inside
Alugean. It was a huge lifeless place full of silence, machinery and
cratesful of supplies.
They went into the test lab and watched a half dozen men and women
trying out the strength of the small, hand-sized weapons.
Twenty meters from them were sheets of different materials, that came
down automatically after the weapons were tested out on each piece of
the materials.
Materials of plastic, glass, wood, splintered and burned up after a
single blast of the small guns that had both laser and electrophoric
capabilities built into them.
The power of the small weapons evenly cut into the strongest metal
slabs that they had on which to test these devices.
Burman was pleased to flaunt the devices that he helped to construct
and both Lloyd and Boyce were impressed.
Lloyd looked at the weapons and tested the weight in his own hand. He
fired a shot of the electrophora at one of the foot thick pieces of the
wood and it splintered into a countless number of pieces.
"I'm glad that the ones I was hit with, when you found me, were not
like this one." Lloyd commented to Boyce with a slight grin.
Boyce studied the weapon for a moment switching it from the
electrophoric to laser, and back again until he was satisfied with its
performance.
"These guns, Burman -- they use the same source of power for both
elements?" Boyce questioned Burman.
Burman looked confused for a moment and questioned Lloyd with his eyes
and Lloyd knew what it was that had confused Burman.
"Gun, is an ancient term for such a weapon of aggression."
Burman then remembered that word 'gun' and he answered Boyce letting
him know that its power source was indeed common for both settings.
Boyce was satisfied with the answer, and so was Lloyd, since he had
thought of asking a similar question. Now both of them knew that, once
the source of power was used up, that was the end of that energy cell.
They each took a belt case and a spare cell, as their armament for the
trip.
They did ask Burman to show them some of the larger-gauged weapons that
were to be used in the invasion and these had a strength five times
that of the small hand guns.
Everything seemed to be going well with the production and already the
weapons were being sent all through the Northern United Alignment, to
the armies that would get two more weeks, so it was hoped, of training
with them until the invasion.
Impressed and fully satisfied with what they saw, they made their way
back to the upper levels of the mountain.
"We have prepared your quarters for tonight." said Burman. "You will
find food and baths, and if you wish, women can be sent to you at the
completion of their shift?"
"No, the food and baths will suffice!" Boyce told Burman. "We depart
early and we should rest -- unless you would prefer some company
tonight, Lloyd?"
Lloyd smiled at them both.
"Maybe, but they'd probably tire me too much and that would make the
trip harder on both of us!"
"We'll find out if that means 'yes', later!" Boyce joked with Burman,
and all three of them laughed.
"Good sleeping then, my friends!" hailed their host then left them go
to their chambers.
They thanked him and entered.
They both bathed before eating and Boyce put on some sweet sounding
music from a time long before the Twentieth Century, and they lay down
on their respective couches and listened.
"Of all that we found in this place," Boyce began, "the music archive
must've been our greatest discovery."
"True!" was all that Lloyd said and they fell asleep.