Aquari by DD White
* * *
The Keshdesh police headquarters became awash with commotion and reporters who were trying to interview Eistia. Eistia sat silent at his desk surrounded by the other police that were ordered to keep reporters away. The news about Eistia’s brave arrest of Volock, the Aungtalli Bishop’s assistant, had caused a buzz all over the continent of Urania. Suddenly reporters from everywhere were closing in on the Keshdesh police headquarters. Meanwhile Volock would be released while the chief had been in his office on the phone being yelled at by someone from the castle if not the King himself. Everything filters down, and Eistia knew it would be about to filter down upon him.
Other officers around the desk were commending Eistia. One said, “I can only wish when my time is through
that I am half the officer as you.”
Then another officer said, “I’ll hand it to you. It was historic.
You worked up the crowd. They are euphoric.
It was brave of you, and was not a jest
that you caught the killer under arrest.”
Eistia just remained silent as ordered, sitting at his desk twiddling a writing device. Then the group of reporters began to cackle, and veer away from Eistia’s desk.
There had been a huddle of officers near the jail entry who were pressing against someone much taller than anyone else in the room who had an enlarged bald Aungtalli head.
Volock effortlessly pushed the officers away to move closer to Eistia at his desk. Everyone anticipated an ugly confrontation about to occur. One of the officers that got shoved aside yelled out. “You got out of jail so now just be gone.
Murderers freed here should just move along.”
Volock just continued his approach toward Eistia who still just twiddled the writing device with his expressionless eyes now on Volock. As more officers got between the two rivals Volock said, “I told you I’d be let out of this den.
I say Eistia, till we meet again.”
Eistia looked like the least intimidated one in the room. “You have your privileges. I do not care.
Just break our laws again, and I’ll be there.” His look into Volock’s eyes advertised a confidence that said he would love another chance to kick Volock’s ass again. The entire precinct of officers then made a wall between the two adversaries. If Volock wanted to start something they were all ready to finish it. Volock just tore himself away and left the Keshdesh police headquarters. A few of the reporters got the whole scene on video recordings. Volock left the precinct to return to a furious Bishop now as publicly embarrassed as Volock because of the obvious connection.
Outside it became even more chaotic than at the police headquarters, and Volock had mobs of angry protesters that he had to shove his way through to get to the Aungtalli temple a couple blocks away for probably more abuse. Uranians had been rallying for some time to get out in the streets with their discontent, and now it had grown into millions in the streets every day. The news had been part of everyone’s conversation and the movement to restore the historic Ministry of Science had become planet-wide. Nothing had ever stirred up so much discontent amongst the Uranian population as did the closure of the Ministry of Science.
Back in Police Headquarters the chief finally opened his door to call Eistia in with his short non-rhyming way that always amplified his constantly fuming anger. “Eistia! Get your flaccid tail in here!”
That was it. Everyone waited for a second for the rest of his chirping, but then extracted the point after pondering his words some more. Eistia knew long before anyone else what the boss had been saying. It had been the kind of noise that grabbed the emotions like a stupid kid who can’t speak anyway, but still can make you understand.
Eistia quickly got up and went into the boss’s office. The boss he met in the office didn’t look mad at all. “There. Have a seat. Shut the door behind you.
I yell for show. I really don’t mind you.
I’ve been on the phone. My tail has been chewed.
The King was angered. It got very rude.
Your police work made news across the land.
Now you have done it. It’s got out of hand.
I’m however, not upset. I don’t mind.
You did good Eistia. I like your kind.”
Eistia was genuinely grateful for the rare flattery. “Thanks chief. I’m surprised that you are not mad
after the ‘tail chewing’ you have just had.”
The Chief replied, “You doing what’s right is what I think cures
what chews my tail, the bunch of shit sphincters.
I’m going to get even watching you go
tell your whole story while I watch the show.
Talk to reporters. I give you a pass.
Those assholes above me can peck my ass.”
King Worapor watched the gathering crowds from his castle parapet. The noise and movement of the protesting crowd made it easy to tell where Volock walked as he made his way to the Aungtalli temple nearby from the jail. The crowd below became an unbearable weight on his unpopular decision to close down the Ministry of Science. The Uranian people had by-passed the Audience Hall procedures and gathered outside his castle to demand an audience. The King had been obligated to bear witness.
It had been the Aungtalli Bishop who really ordered the closing of the Ministry, and the Aungtalli were really only as influential on the King as the religiously faithful crowds they represented. The population of the planet had lost their contentment, but King Worapor knew the problem wasn’t economics. Everyone on the planet had value and had been well cared for, which always kept them content in their homes before. The problem wasn’t even really the closing of the Ministry, but that had become the final crossing of the line as far as the masses before him were concerned. King Worapor even thought reopening the Ministry would calm these angry masses down. King Worapor realized that the real problem had been what he had no control over, the mortality rate, disease, and other problems caused by solar activity. Many in the crowd blamed the Aungtalli for the mortality problem, but the King knew that wasn’t true. The King realized as he witnessed his people’s discontent that it had been the Ministry of Science that gave them hope, and closing it down became an act of war against that hope. King Worapor just didn’t see many Aungtalli supporting crowds out there, and he did think, as usual, that the Aungtalli knew more about the solar problem then they were telling.
The King considered the leverage this protest gave him to just reopen the Ministry. It had never been in his interest to close it in the first place. That would reestablish his place as a true King of the people. Being a true King had been his only leverage with the three families that raised him from an egg for this duty of King, and the three families could always easily assassinate an unpopular failure of a King, which he realized he had dangerously set himself up for. King Worapor had also been nobody’s fool. He knew the Ministry had upset the Aungtalli with their recent technological discoveries. They were discoveries that not only documented a thriving pre-Aungtalli Uranian civilization over 250,000 years ago. That pre-Aungtalli civilization had technologies that rivaled the Aungtalli toys that the Aungtalli claim came from the gods. This thriving highly advanced ancient civilization also accessed data from satellites that were still orbiting the planet in gravitational Lagrange points. The King had been aware that those satellites were relaying data today that indicated that the sun was dying.
King Worapor then became put in motion by a decision to use this moment for a confrontation with the Aungtalli Bishop. He began to notify the entourage that closed in on him that he was on his way to the Aungtalli temple to speak with the Bishop.
The Aungtalli Bishop had been furious with Volock, and he sounded a lot like Eistia’s boss throwing a yelling fit. The Bishop had been careful not to display this lack of composure to anyone else, so he had Volock meet him in the environment shelter, which every Aungtalli temple
“Your secret mission was for all to see!
Now what you’ve done is reflected on me!” Then the King who had just arrived, opened the environment chamber door unannounced. The Bishop’s screaming session with Volock had been abruptly interrupted.
“… Oh, your highness, I did not expect you.
I was just with Volock. NOW I AM THROUGH!”
Volock seized on the Bishop’s glare that finally dismissed him from the scolding. He bowed submissively to both of them, and took his queue to leave the Bishop and the King alone.
King Worapor looked over the airtight environment shelter that covered half a square mile of complex below the ground under the capital city’s Aungtalli temple. The Aungtalli took the legend of the end of the world very seriously, and the King thought that they even longed for it like some kind of sick twisted death wish. Aungtalli end-of-the-world environment shelters were all powered by the mysterious energy that provided a living environment of atmosphere and temperatures according to instructions found in ancient scriptures. Many Aungtalli temples dutifully stocked their environment shelters with enough food and water to survive for years with a small population of chosen ones.
The King addressed the Bishop. “The Ministry closed, you made me order
because the times are getting much shorter.
They saw what you didn’t want them to see.
You wanted to hide their discovery.”
The Bishop knew where this was going and interrupted. “Oh mighty King you think I can’t deceive
you, but I say you are still quite naive.
These special shelters are for the chosen
who are Aungtalli. The rest are frozen.
I made you close down the Ministry
so the solar damage they wouldn’t see.
The gods control the sun that seals our fates
with increased Uranian cancer rates.
This is my purpose so I will not cry
when you with all of them finally die.”
The King became suddenly angry at the Bishop’s rude frankness. “Well that may just be what you had arranged,
but I’m here to tell you that things have changed.
I do not care what threats from gods you send.
To open the Ministry I intend.”
The Bishop visually murdered the King who had already made the mistake of walking in on him in a furious mood. “That’s quite some nerve to say that to my face.
I’ll summon gods to put you in your place.
That said now I’ll tell you what you will do.
You’ll tell Ploabot that his lawsuit is through.
As for the crowds you will then calm them down.
Now get out of here. Don’t come back around.”
The King had lost his nerve after barging in on the Bishop’s commanding presence, and so he left the temple humiliated by the loss of his courage. The Bishop had all but admitted to the King that the neutrino-induced solar flares were a scheme by the Devasuras to sterilize Uranians with infrared, x-rays, and gamma rays over a period of time, as well as to escalate cancer rates. How can a King stand up to the gods? The King worried that these really were the last days of his planet. What can a King do about the end of the world?