500 Words - "Duty"

[caraig]

Okana Ng walked at a leisurely pace into the Chamber, a pace that military officers in past ages would have found shameful and scandalous. He did not care; he knew the Archons did not care. There was time. There was always time.

His footsteps did not echo, though to his sight it was large and the ceiling was lost to darkness far above. The Chamber's dimensions would be meaningless to give as merely width, breadth, depth. Still, to his sight the chamber was a cylindrical room of ethereal marble, perhaps thirty meters in diameter and many hundred of meters high. Even then, there was more than merely the physical construction to it, for the walls were fluted, with a starry, nebulous void beyond.

Okana was glad to see that this particular selection of archons were waiting for him wearing plain pearlescent robes instead of the ceremonial finery they would sometimes be seen in. He preferred simplicity to ritual, though he knew it had its place.

"Sanguinarch, welcome," the High Archon said in greeting.

He gave a simple bow. "Archons, you called for me?"

The High Archon chose to appear as a matronly lady with dark youthful hair. She stood tall, taller than Okana, and had the "timeless stature" that is so often written about and yet so infrequently seen. "There has been an incursion, Sanguinarch."

He had known it was something of this sort. "One of our peers?" He had guessed the answer, however.

"No. Younger ones. They showed promise, but have expanded far. Now they come upon the edge of our domain in the First World."

He nodded a little. He had done this before; he knew what was to come. "They have been warned?"

"They have been warned three times. First they were turned back, second they were disabled and returned home, third they sent a fleet as they always do and one of their ships was destroyed."

He nodded, closing his eyes. "How many are in the fleet they have sent now?"

Something in his voice made the High Archon pause. "Three hundred, including eighty ships of the line."

Another of the Archons spoke. "We believe they have a chance to do severe harm to one of our worlds if they are allowed near any."

They always do. "Three hundred ships.... Archons, they are young. Just as we were once."

"We were never foolish enough to challenge the Transcendents, especially in their own domains."

"We never knew about the transcendents until we ruled a galaxy."

"Even if we had," the Archon continued, "the civilizations of our ancestors knew not to meddle in things that wished not to be meddled with."

"We cannot know that." He turned back to the High Archon. "May I suggest something."

The High Archon had been listening impassively to the small discussion. She nodded once to Okana.

He gathered his thoughts for a moment. "I know it is our way to give them only a few warnings before calling upon me. But let us try to speak with them, try to make them understand the tiger they are attempting to beard."

There were shaking heads amongst the Archons, and he could sense their reluctance, en masse, to his proposal. "It is not possible," the High Archon said. "They must be made to see that their actions will only bring them pain."

Another Archon spoke. "Perhaps someday they will understand. For now, their theories of physics and metaphysics do not postulate more than the universe they can see. What they cannot see, they cannot believe in."

A third one, then. "Like all young, they must learn through hardship and harsh demonstration what they cannot understand."

Okana sighed softly. "Must they know pain from our hand before all else? They may not learn the lesson we wish to teach them."

"All sentient beings know the lesson of pain, Sanguinarch. Since our deepest ancestors first touched the stars, we knew enough to leave something that hurt us alone until we understood it better."

"But all this civilization knows is pain from us! They do not know how to learn better. We are not an open flame that singes and burns. We are unseen death."

"They have been warned. And you have been given your isnstructions. In an hour's time they will have entered the heliosphere of the Third Nosikopan system. We have warned them not to, and yet they persist. Would you have us go against our promise?"

"I would rather the promise never have been made in the first place, Archon."

"You know what is at stake," a fourth archon intoned. "Should we prove malleable, younger races will intrude upon us and seek to learn what we have. They will interfere with our projects and our research and meditations towards finally shuffling off our need for the First World will be delayed interminably. We will become involved in the affairs of the Younger."

"Why should we not be? Our First World domain still exists. Why should we not take a care as to what takes place near it?"

"You know we did that once." This time, the High Archon's voice carried sadness. "It ended in disaster. We were looked upon with suspicion by some, and by others as the solution to all their problems. Each time we intervened.. it just became worse."

"We cannot let ourselves get involved ever again."

Okana closed his eyes again, thinking... but he did not know what to do. "I do not wish to go against your wishes. I know you have considered this carefully. I cannot think but that there is a better way, somehow. I urge you to take a different approach when again one of the Younger touch upon our domains.

"I will do as the Archons ask. I will do it myself, as I always have. But I do not want to." With that, he turned and stepped out of the chamber, heading immediately for the place where the shadows dwelt and the weapon of the endless night waited.

The archons watched him leave, and exchanged glances. One shifted a little uncomfortably. "Will he--?"

"He will," the High Archon said dismally. "But we must have a care, for I do not think he will do so ever again."

Comments

Finally..

[sepharen.livejournal.com]

Ahh, finally, someone significantly better than myself to soak up some of the compliments I've been receiving.

Keep up the good work.

Re: Finally..

[tamahori]

Hey, both of you are damn good! So I'm going to keep complementing both of you, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. BUWHAHAHAHA!

Brett, the crazy one.

[breeane.livejournal.com]

Deeply cool.

What more need saying.

Good work, man

[stardreamink.livejournal.com]

I rather enjoyed this one. It sucked me in from the first few lines. The conflict between duty and desire is well illustrated and played out for so few words.

I'm hungry for more. I found myself picturing the scene, and wanting to know more details...

It sounds like an interesting scenario and setting. With the potential to get philosophical and really make you think.

I'll read and comment on the rest of them soon. Not sure if I'll read them as fast as you're writing. I'm behind on a lot of things.

Got Dan Brown's first book out of the way though, so I can maybe catch up on Livejournals this week. I'd rather have read a book that started with the above as the epilogue. Dan Brown was alright, but the dude really needs a) an editor b) some drama lessons/experience and c) a copy of Armed & Dangerous: The Writers Guide to Guns. I'll put off on reading the Davinci Code so I can read some more of this Jonathan McDermott this weekend instead. You kick his ass. ;)

I should write chapter 2 and 3 of my Wild Hunt fic too probably. Kick me if I don't at least do part of them, Caraig? ;)