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Stories from the Verse
In Version
Chapter 124: Beam 192
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 244
Beam sat with his team in a small corner of the operations center.
“Ideas for what to do now?”
“Malacon said that the--the gravity emitters--were badly burned in the descent, maybe sabotaged. And the impact with the ocean and the ocean floor did no good for them either,” Bron said, struggling to remember the words. Beam nodded. He needed his people to get stronger, and teaching Bron to be more than a blacksmith and a hammer swinging fighter was part of that. “He doesn’t think we can fix them without years of work.”
Beam nodded, “We’ll put that to the side for now. What about the water coming in?”
“I talked to the scientist wizards--”
“They’re not magicians, Sophia,” Beam corrected her. She shrugged, and continued.
“They said the emergency bulkheads on the second floor where some other alien--”
“In my employ,” Beam added. It was not true; everyone in the conversation knew it was not true, but it was an important part of Beam’s myth of authority for the alien billion he ruled over.
“Right, of course. Well, they say the first layer emergency bulkheads are buckling. They are coming up with plans to reinforce the second layer when the first layer inevitably breaks in a week or a month from now.”
“Bob,” Beam said.
This one could contact Kondor, ask advice. He is intelligent.
“And not exactly our friend. Let’s put that to the side for now, too, although we may end up doing it,” Beam said, thinking hard. The LGMs still trusted him, and they were focused on hunting down Norax for now. For the last several days, since the Robot Offensive failed, Norax had been spotted three separate times with a group of resistors. He was attempting to rally support by claiming that the People should rule over the indigenous Parakeets of this world, instead of being ruled over by an alien, Beam.
“I could hunt Norax, oh Son of the Goddess--”
“Son of the what?” Sophia exclaimed. Beam quelled it.
“Ash, I did ask you not to call me that.”
“True; but you did not say what I should call you instead.”
He nodded. It passed through his head to tell her to call him ‘Whiskey’, but then, he would be the only one who would get the joke so he skipped it. “It’s not that important. Soph calls me Jim, Bron calls me J.D., and Dawn calls me Sir. You can call me what you like.”
Ashleigh giggled. “I like ‘Son of the Goddess’.”
He could see there was no point arguing.
“Anyway, it would be only a matter of time I think before we catch or kill the renegade.”
Catch please, Bob thought.
“I agree with Bob. Better to have a trial and then an execution. It will provide the people something to think about, and strengthen my authority more.”
Ashleigh bowed her head. “As you wish, Son of the Goddess. I will aim to injure, not to kill.”
“O.K.,” Beam said, “I’m going to have to meet with my top LGM officers and some of their advisors. That’s next; but for the moment, I need to think.”
That was a clear end to the meeting Beam had called, and the others wandered off. Sophia stayed behind, and took the time to make sure Beam remembered why she was Wife Number One. Soon enough, though, he was back to ruling over a billion little green men.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #495: World Crises. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
