Cardinal Executor of Elthred
Young
Ronan’s mother watches as the last of the red wine spilled onto the floor and
across the wall absorbs and vanishes into its hard permeable fabric, to be
redistributed elsewhere.
‘Where
does it go?’ puzzled young Ronan in a meek voice.
‘Back
to the start.’
‘Where’s
the start?’ mumbles Ronan.
Sheeba
looks despondent, she picks up the empty wine glass and moves toward a bench
with a ruby bottle sitting on it. ‘Would you like to make something for your us
tonight? Perhaps that one you call beetroot salad?’
Young
Ronan is momentarily confused by the change of subject, but promptly jumps up
from the couch. ‘No, I know what we can do! It came to me when I was working
with Loki on his new game. When his characters co-op they can share the food
they find in the forests and caves. Can I show you Loki’s game? I want you and
Dad to choose an area each and I’ll make up something from what I can find in
those places!’
Young
Ronan dashes off into his room to retrieve his play cube. Sheeba smiles,
calling after him, ‘That’s a great idea. I found another food shape chart with
a converter today, we should make use of it.’
Ronan
beams as he runs back into the room and flicks the corner of his play cube. The
room is instantly filled with the overlay of a tropical mangrove forest.
‘We’ll
start here,’ sang young Ronan as he navigated towards a STORE symbol beside a
river on his HUD.
~
While
Ronan’s distracted by the shiny black and white shoes of the lecturer at the
front of the crowded open-lecture hall, a young lady with braided slick blue
hair enters very late and seats herself beside him. She turns on her journal
after placing her own small eDos cell into the glassy desktop to download what
she has missed. Ronan can see the name Prussia carved across its surface in
neat tiny lettering.
While
she focuses her attention to the front of the amphitheatre and leans slightly
forward, Ronan sneaks a surreptitious look sideways at the angle of her nose,
darkness of her lashes, a loose strand of hair slipping from behind her ear and
the curve of her exposed neck. As if sensing his gaze, she glances at him
without meeting his eyes and leans backwards. Ronan looks at her hands, as she
does his.
The
lecturer professed. ‘They began valuing collaboration over competition,
recognising interdependence and reversing the hierarchical structures that had
enabled many types of exploitation to occur. Exploitation had been paramount to
the material success of their misguided philosophies. With it they manufactured
disease and debt for their perceived untermenschen, limiting human potential.’
‘A
little dramatic don’t you think,’ scoffed Ronan.
‘History
is drama,’ marked Prussia quietly.
The
professor continued. ‘Enabled by global communication, during the end of the
psychic depression the top down movement of information also changed. There are
many arguments surrounding the relationship between this shift in social
relations and the illumination of our ancestors. The appallingly slow reaction,
to the advent of the realization that while one could put a value on product,
physical and spiritual output could never be fully quantified, should also be
considered when reviewing this period.’
The
professor projected a few historic photos of rolling dome homes.
‘Within
the scope of your next paper concerning the Hundai Effect, I would like for
each of you to remember the pre-dendritic pyramidal systems inability to grow
beyond its own borders, to mature by integrating other ideas. The way it
treated problems and solutions, threats to itself, by always opting to amputate
instead of integrate.’
Feeling
a little stung by Prussia’s earlier retort, Ronan attempts to redeem himself.
He takes a deep breath, ‘So, the meme that was-’ but Prussia was already
standing and making her way out of the lecture theatre. Ronan glances a small
purple symbol beside a playlist on her journal screen and notes Prussia’s
exposed ears. He wonders what music might be floating through her head.
Ronan
relaxes back into his seat and huffs. His eyes fall on the long legs of a tall
green-eyed female student talking to the lecturer. Her hair is long and black
with a single streak of blue. The lecturer seems highly amused by what she is
saying and laughs raucously.
Curious,
Ronan picks up his journal and begins to edge along the isle, racking his brain
for a question to ask the professor.
~
‘Mon
Avshalom,’ introduces Poltauramy, ‘this is Min Prussia Catar, our Ida-el for
Exploration and Foreign Affairs. Min Prussia, Ronan is joining us after more
than 36 years in economics and education, some 27 years in the Channeled Forces
and of course time on the Legi-’
‘-Legislative
Council,’ interrupts Prussia. ‘Yes, I remember him as a Unida. But we’ve
crossed paths earlier than that.’
Ronan’s
eyes betray surprise.
Poltauramy
watches with growing amusement as Ronan furrows his brows and Prussia simpers.
‘Mon
Avshalom,’ coughs Prussia formally, ‘I look forward to having you shadow me and
I hope I can contribute in some meaningful way to your preparation as
Executer…Cardinal Executer even.’
Ronan
noted the almond shape of her eyes and the firm pitch of her voice. ‘If the
people will have me,’ mumbled Ronan as Prussia nodded slightly abashed.
Ronan’s
memory search was interrupted by Poltauramy’s hand on his shoulder. ‘Don’t be
fooled by his reticence,’ Poltauramy smiles at Prussia, ‘It’s that streak of
impartiality we so need in one charged with the balanced distribution of our
auxiliary resources.’
≈
I
was relieved and annoyed to finally receive that stray, unsigned signal that
finally enabled us to locate Poltauramy on Raintree. After expending much
energy to keep a lid on the fact that our Ideity had been out of contact for
more than 45 hours, I was not looking forward to facing him at the meeting he
scheduled on re’entry. The short notice meeting in Lasalle was to showcase some
of the specimens he personally retrieved during his latest reconnaissance
mission. While Poltauramy was docking, I was selecting six Aleksi to oversee
the meeting.
Goshe
called to inform me that Poltauramy was only a few hours away. I suggested
Goshe invite Harje to inspect settlement preparations being made by the
Channeled Forces Flight Unit and allow her to greet Poltauramy at the dock upon
his arrival. I knew she would bring her own keen eyed Unida with her and that
they wouldn’t be able to resist inoffensively interrogating Poltauramy’s crew,
especially Lorie.
Hopefully
Lorie might persuade Harje to see Poltauramy’s explorations-for-explorations-sake
as a frivolous waste of resources on romanticised pursuits.
Harje
was inconveniently late to arrive at The Docks. A malfunctioning wall structure
shifted the course of the Ferne Freeway corridor. Thankfully Leed was able to
converse with the Overman in order to resolve the problem, but Harje’s company
arriving after Poltauramy’s Sk’ray had already unloaded irks me. I have
suspicions about the Ferne structural collapse too…but to cast doubt in the
Overman would be to risk appearing delusional.
≈
‘Carry
on,’ Goshe says firmly, looking up at Leed.
Leed
nods and leaves promptly as Goshe similarly places his hand to the wall and
requests an audience.
From
his side of the clearway, he addresses Poltauramy.
‘Mar
Poltauramy, Zyzyva and Harje are concerned about the rise in uncredited work
occurring among Channeled Forces Personnel.’
‘I’ve
refrained from disrupting your CFP’s rosters.’
‘They
may be volunteering without disrupting the circulation of activities but this
begs the question, why?’
The
clearway opens and Poltauramy enters the corridor to look down at Goshe.
‘Is
it not important to continue accumulating information and insight into the
creatures and cultures we are potentially threatening?’ posits Poltauramy.
‘We
have enough information and we’re of no threat.’
‘That
is for me to decide,’ asserts Poltauramy.
‘Forgive
me,’ replies Goshe.
Poltauramy
starts walking as Goshe follows.
‘What
is the real reason you are here? Does it concern you that so many CFP’s have
philanthropic interests? I’m sure Zyzyva and Harje will have no objection to
what is occurring in that light.’
Goshe
hesitates, puts a hand to his stomach. ‘Look, I just want them outta my garden,
Harje’s on my back because they’re my boys.’
‘Did
Ronan send you? He probably sent Harje. Don’t worry Goshe, I have every
intention of initiating the deployment of settlers within the next five years.
I’m not persuading anyone anything otherwise.’
~
Ronan
watches as Poltauramy leans down to young Tauramy seated in his soft seat,
takes the play cube from his hands and brushes his ear.
Tauramy
looks up questioningly.
‘Time
to go Pablo,’ say Poltauramy.
Young
Tauramy sighs as he lifts himself out of the chair that melds back into the
floor below him.
‘You
can watch the Assembly from home with your Mum, you’re to look after her
remember. And here, watch this.’
Poltauramy
twists Tauramy’s cube as Ronan attempts to unlock the clearway to Elbrihim.
Tauramy jumps onto Poltauramy’s back and pulls himself onto his broad
shoulders.
‘Hey,
what are you a spidermonkey now?’ laughs Poltauramy repeating the twisting
motion on the cube.
Tauramy
notices Ronan holding his amulet to the wall. Tauramy touches the ceiling above
him to regain some balance and a second later a thin line trails along the wall
and a clearway parts for Ronan. The chatter of ME’s wafts into the room as
Tauramy watches his Fathers hands twisting the cube and Ronan leaves the room.
Poltauramy
hands the play cube back to Tauramy.
‘There,
that’s one algorithm you’ll need to know,’ asserts Poltauramy warmly as he
grabs Tauramy by the waist and flips him soundly onto the floor.
‘Thanks
Dad!’ hollers Tauramy as he backs out the clearway parting behind him.
‘Oh
let me get that for you,’ stammers Poltauramy as he hastens to the wall and
needlessly holds his amulet beside the door.
Ronan’s
face appears at the other clearway. ‘Are you coming?’
Ronan
and Poltauramy emerge from a new door opposite the entrance from Lasalle into
Elbrihim where the other one hundred and twenty four ME’s are waiting. The
grooves in the floor that had been outlining linear rows around a single raised
chair were now filled with seated Members. Many of them are reading and writing
notes while settling for the traditionally broadcast gathering. Goshe
acknowledges Ronan before turning to his journal and accessing an internal
message service.
Once
Ronan and Poltauramy have assumed their positions seated amongst the ME’s,
Elbrihim’s walls glow in a gradient from sky blue on its domed ceiling to its
regular hue of deep blue at floor level. It’s information access points remain
as pin sized starlight’s in their deep grooves. As silence falls over the
gathering, the ceiling begins to clear and reveal the starlit darkness of outer
space.
A
small black orb rises from behind the raised empty chair in the centre of the
assembly and hovers around two meters off the ground. The pale white and blue
lights of the ME’s journals reflect off the orbs glassy black surface. After a
minute’s silence, the black orb emits a stunningly bright white flash that
fills the room.
Poltauramy
officially opens the Assembly with the words ‘By the powers vested in me by the
fammunity of Netech, I declare this Assembly of Elthred open for the people.’
Mar
Poltauramy begins by welcoming everyone and reflecting on the progress and
results of issues approached in the previous assembly. Eventually he instructs,
‘Would the Local Representatives begin by initiating today’s discourse.’
Then
the Local Representatives forward the questions and issues, raised foremost by their
extensive fammunity via live forum, to the Regional Representatives; who
publicly admit receivership and so officially place the duly defined problem on
the floor.
The
Unida’s, mindful of acting vision, mission and value statements respond with
analyses respective to their area of expertise; thus presenting a comprehensive
environmental scan and applicable inventory to all participants, in past or
present, in person or pixel, formally referred to as a Member of Elthred.
Upon
the Unida’s finalising adequate specialist disclosures, the floor is open for
the construction of solutions.
Throughout
this process of collective thinking, Poltauramy indicates the next speaker.
Participants allow their places to glow semi-bright or very bright according to
their desire to participate in the present discussion. Often, members are
speaking on behalf of online forum groups. Poltauramy tracks the discussion and
bridges ideas that AI cannot, until a consensus on an appropriate response or a
limit of three implementable strategies and tactics for each issue, is
achieved. This includes allocating persons to oversee tasks with specific
objectives through the nomination of self or others, while suggesting how
existing resources should be redistributed in order to achieve the goals
subsequently articulated by the Ida, Ida-el and Ida-el-nor and recorded
concisely by Mar Poltauramy.
As
Ida-el-nor and Cardinal Executor, Mon Ronan has nine hours to accept or reject
the proposals in detail and posit them to Mar Poltauramy to be enacted;
excepting in the case of a Level 2 Crisis in which it is one hour and
supplementary votes by the Members of Elthred have due influence. In the event
of L1C, with consideration of the demands of the interfammunity, all ME’s and
the Ida-el-nor, Mar Poltauramy’s word is immediate, overriding and final.
This
day, Ronan addresses concerns relating to larger developments, such as the
progress of the Settlement Project.
Toward
the end of the three-hour meeting branching problems and notable achievements,
Ronan took attention.
‘In
closing, I would like to announce my support for Mon Ealahad III’s decision to
proceed deploying the first settlements on Raintree over the duration of the
next five years.’ Over the top of fervent murmuring Ronan continued. ‘We have
no intention of displacing those who have thrived and remain on what we
consider to be ancestral land and we believe that the technology we have since
created will cause minimal disturbance and in most cases even allow our
inhabitation to remain largely undetected; provided of course we adhere to the
legislature passed by Min Catar regarding foreign interfaces.’
Prussia’s
seat briefly glows bright before fading to a gentle after-glow.
‘Thank
you Ronan,’ said Poltauramy standing up. ‘I am aware of the overwhelming
support for Netech to remain in orbit and also for sustainable forms of
habitation to become available on Raintree. It was the dream of our ancestors
that we might return and it has taken many generations to preserve and also
recover portions of Raintree’s natural habitat. We have lost many gentle giants
and countless mini-beasts, intelligent and enlightened species possessing
invaluable knowledge and understanding of our universe. Their frames remain
embedded in the desert sands and ocean floors as do our old dwellings,
testaments to the passing of our time. Maybe as we are resurrected in our
place, so too might they be. Should the memory of humankinds journey be severed
again or self-righteous individuals attempt to misuse the past as fertilizer
for the fostering of new destructive principles, our world will again testify
for itself. It will speak to those who seek and give them wonder, for they will
recognise it as an opening to the universe, a cord to the source. It is our
desire that the dream to once again stand with feet planted in the earth and
body immersed in clean water under a blue sky while pure power saturates ones
skin…is realised.’
‘Hear,
hear!’ praised Ronan clearly.
‘This
time, we will not disturb the balance of Raintree’s power. This time, we will
not blindly interfere with the perpetual struggle between the elements that
reign our home.’
Goshe
began clapping lightly as did Prussia, followed by most of the gathered
Assembly.
Poltauramy
announced, ‘I call an end to this, the 3114th Assembly of Elthred.’ The
hovering black orb retreated into the floor and the ceiling became blue,
lighting up the hall while Members turned and customarily shook one another’s
hands in peace.
~
As
the private ceremony within Nuria comes to an end, Ronan collects Nelesia’s
free hand, her other hand holds a sprig of acacia from a wreath.
‘Nelesia,
I will see to it that Leed fields any calls regarding Poltauramy for the next
few weeks. And if I may intrude for the briefest of moments, I will need to
retrieve any work Poltauramy has left at home. We’ve been unable to recover one
of his runes, we assume it was similarly…affected by the…’
Nelesia
stares at the floor.
‘I
may need your assistance gaining access to his work.’
‘Yes,’
replied Nelesia distantly, recovering her hand. ‘Whatever you need…Give me a
few hours.’
‘I
could come now if you’d like, escort you home, get it over with?’
‘No
thank you, not now. I’d like to be left alone today.’
Ronan
appears agitated, ‘But there are things going on that-’
‘The
Elthred must have time to grieve now. These things must wait,’ sighs Nelesia.
Ronan
bows his head ever so slightly. ‘Nelesia.’
‘Ronan,’
says Nelesia firmly.
Prussia
approaches Nelesia and Ronan, breaking the tension.
‘Nelesia,
out of respect for Mar Poltauramy,’ began Prussia, ‘we can suspend all
activities on the project until further notice.’
~
Leed
stands to attention, having entered Ronan’s private quarters, ‘Mon Avshalom.’
‘Leed,
Nelesia made it home soundly I gather.’
‘Yes,
Doctor Green is with Young Poltauramy as we speak.’
‘I
notice Untuk and Entrite are not posted presently.’
‘Doctor
Green won’t be going anywhere for a while.’
‘Is
this something you have assumed?’
Leed’s
grey eyes remain fixed on Ronan, ‘Doctor Greenfield herself informed me.’
‘Have
them replaced immediately. Young Tauramy is not to be left unattended under any
circumstances.’
‘Within
his home?’
‘All
surrounding areas. Report any extraordinary occurrences to me immediately, as
per the instructions made to you in the first instance.’
‘In
Lasalle?’
Ronan
draws a sharp breath. ‘Yes Alæ Leed.’
~
While
Aleksi surrounded Poltauramy, held aloft on a bindor disc, two Aleksi held
Young Poltauramy’s hands securely behind his back.
‘Taurmy!’
warned Ronan placing his hands on Young Poltauramy’s shoulders, ‘Don’t touch!
Maaari mong mamatay!’ he fumed. One of the Aleksi behind Ronan seemed to glance
directly at him momentarily and Tauramy wondered if he heard Ronan talking in
another language.
Ronan
and the Aleksi pinned Tauramy against a wall. Frightened and confused, he
presently dissolved through it.
Staggered,
Ronan barked at the Aleksi blindly pawing the solid amber wall. ‘Stop! Recover
the boy but do not engage, I repeat do not engage! Track him until further
notice.’
The
Aleksi began to sprint across the room, ‘Leed! Stay!’ barked Ronan.
Ronan
sought Prussia across the floor as Leed stopped and turned face.
‘I
knew it! Does Nelesia know of this!?’ he thundered.
‘She’s
his Mother, she must,’ stammered Prussia from beside Poltauramy.
Ronan
looks back to the unmarked stretch of wall and concedes, ‘he is the risk.’
‘Depends
how Nelesia’s been managing him,’ murmured Prussia.
Ronan
tilts his head thoughtfully. ‘Of course, the hand that feeds.’
‘We
should stay calm, he doesn’t look like he understands yet,’ said Prussia.
Ronan
turns to regard Alæ Leed. He dismisses the other remaining Aleksi before
speaking.
‘I want every step that boy takes recorded from now on,’ said Ronan
slowly, ‘see to it that every Aleksi understand they are responsible for
ensuring he only moves when and where I approve. I wont have him unsetting my plans.’
