CHAPTER 20 – A VISIT TO THE POPE
08:58 (Rome Time)
Friday, December 9, 861 C.E.
Air limousine, 2,000 meters above the West Coast of Italy
On approach to Rome
‘’We are about to cross the Italian coast, Doctor Drelan.’’
Vyyn Drelan, who was sitting in the back of the air limousine and had been reading her notes on her electronic tablet, looked up and contemplated for a moment the coastline before speaking briefly to the driver of the vehicle.
‘’Thank you, Min!’’
Vyyn then switched off her tablet in order to concentrate on the landscape they were about to overfly. As a historian, the idea of being able to visit the ancient city of Rome excited her tremendously. However, for this visit at least, her time in Rome was going to be quite limited, as she had a very specific mission to fill today. The Centaurian Public Security officer who was serving as her bodyguard today wiggled in his seat, apparently nervous. Vyyn gave him an encouraging smile in response.
‘’Don’t worry, Agent Jong: this should be a peaceful visit.’’
‘’Uh, if you says so, Doctor.’’ Replied Xia Jong. At the age of 26, he had served six years as a police officer with the Public Security Department of Kyoto Alpha and had dealt in the past with a wide variety of crimes and incidents, including brawls in bars and situations involving mentally disturbed people. This was however the first time that he had left the enclave of Toulouse since his arrival there with his family in October. On the plus side, he could rely on his past training as a bodyguard during his few months on Kyoto Alpha when he had been attached to the V.I.P. Protection Section, plus he wore the protective helmet and armored vest that had been standard for the public security officers in Kyoto Alpha. As armament went, he wore a riot baton and a neuronic stun pistol at his belt, while Vyyn Drelan carried a compact stun pistol. He thus did his best to relax while contemplating the Italian landscape.
The air limousine soon arrived at the vertical of Rome and headed for the Esquilin District, in the eastern part of the city. Vyyn examined from above the buildings on the ground before pointing to her driver a palace surrounded by gardens and situated near a cliff, just inside Rome’s walls.
‘’There is the palace of Latran! Land on the square near the palace to let me and Agent Jong get off. You will then take off and will wait for us at low altitude.’’
‘’Understood, Doctor Drelan.’’
The driver soon started his descent, to finally land smoothly on the paved square. Ignoring the few passersby who were now fleeing left and right at the sight of the flying machine, Vyyn and Xia calmly stepped out of their vehicle and started walking towards the Pope’s palace. As she was walking, Vyyn took her time to admire the multitude of ancient monuments and buildings visible around her, while their air limousine took off.
‘’Agent Jong, you can’t know how much I had been dreaming about making such a visit. This city was the seat of an empire the kind of which history had rarely seen.’’
‘’To each his own, Doctor.’’ Replied Xia, who only saw the primitive and potentially dangerous character of this place. His eyes then caught on two men who were running towards him and Vyyn. Both men, dressed in short tunics and sandals, were armed with lances, swords and shields. He undid the safety strap of his pistol’s holster as he spoke to Vyyn in a low voice.
‘’Doctor, two armed men are running towards us, coming from our back.’’
Vyyn immediately snapped her head around and examined the two men for an instant before shouting to them in Latin.
‘’DO NOT BE ALARMED! WE ARE HERE TO MEET THE POPE AND HAVE NO HOSTILE INTENTIONS.’’
The two papal guards slowed down to a normal walk, but continued to follow them from a respectful distance, with Xia keeping an eye on them. Arriving at the foot of the stairs leading to the main entrance of the palace of Latran, the duo calmly climbed the stone steps of the old Roman palace, to arrive at the main entrance, guarded by four guards similar to the two men that had been following them. Vyyn politely bowed her head in salute at the man who appeared to be an officer.
‘’Good morning my good man! I am Doctor Vyyn Drelan, diplomatic envoy of the Human Expansion, and I am here to ask for an audience with His Holiness The Pope.’’
The officer of the guards returned her salute, his expression neutral.
‘’I will see if His Holiness can receive you. Please wait here.’’
The man then opened one of the double doors and disappeared inside the palace, leaving Vyyn and Xia alone with five armed guards nervously watching them. Xia then whispered in Vyyn’s ear in English.
‘’I don’t like this, Doctor: those guards are way too nervous to my taste and could easily overreact.’’
‘’The more reasons to stay calm, Agent Jong.’’ Whispered back Vyyn. They had to wait a good six minutes before the officer returned, accompanied by a graying man wearing a red robe. The latter eyed Vyyn with visible hostility and spoke to her in Latin, his tone harsh.
‘’Why would the Pope wish to speak with a witch like you? What is the true goal of your visit?’’
Vyyn reddened with anger at those words but managed to keep her voice level.
‘’First of, I am no witch. Second, I came here as a representative of the Human Expansion, in order to have diplomatic talks with His Holiness The Pope. And who would you be?’’
‘’I am Cardinal Fraolo, First Secretary of His Holiness, and I decide who gets to see The Pope. As for you coming as a diplomat, I don’t believe you.’’
Fraolo then looked at the officer of the guards while pointing at Vyyn.
‘’She probably came to assassinate His Holiness. Arrest her!’’
Xia, who had tensed up at the hostile tone of the cardinal, quickly interpose himself between the guards and Vyyn while drawing his stun pistol in a flash. He had time to fire once, hitting the officer as the latter was drawing his sword, before the other three guards facing him attacked with their lances. Two of the lances either stuck on his body armor or slid against it, but the third once jabbed him in his left arm, making him scream with pain. Clenching his teeth, Xia fired a second time, downing one more guard. He had however forgotten about the two guards in his back and paid for that with a lance point through his neck. Killed nearly instantly, Xia crumbled to the ground as two guards brutally grabbed Vyyn by the arms, preventing her from activating her radio to send an alert message. A third guard then stepped forward and swung his fist at her, hitting her on the chin and knocking her unconscious. Cardinal Fraolo grabbed the pistol dropped by Xia and threw a hateful look at Vyyn, inert and held by two guards.
‘’Bring her to the basement cells of the guards’ barracks: I will have questions for that witch. Make sure that she has no weapons with her. As for her guard, put his body in a cell for the time being.’’
‘’Yes, Your Excellency!’’
The group then entered the palace, with two guards dragging Xia’s body inside, while the remaining guard took care of their two stunned comrades. The driver of the air limousine, who was in the middle of a wide turn over the palace, was unable to see the drama, as the overhang over the main entrance had cut his line of sight. Unaware that anything untoward had happened, the driver followed his directives from Vyyn and continued circling around the palace, waiting for a call from her to come pick her up. The only witness to the brief fight had in fact been a lowly monk carrying a pile of books and parchments, who hurried inside the palace as well.
When Vyyn slowly woke up, with a sharp pain to her chin and jaw, she found herself suspended by chains and manacles to the vaulted stone ceiling of a dark basement room, with her feet off the floor and forcibly spread by chains attached to her ankles. She also happened to be completely naked. Fear rising in her, she looked around her to detail the room she was in. What she saw did nothing to reassure her: a number of torture instruments, including a stretching rack and a brazier containing a number of iron pokers, were plainly visible. A guard that had been sitting near the only door visible to her got up on seeing that she was awake and left the room, closing the thick wood and iron door behind him. Now alone in the semi-darkness, Vyyn desperately thought about a way to get out of her present predicament, but in vain. She no longer had her videophone bracelet, nor her radio headset, so could not call for help. Vyyn then started hoping fervently that the driver of her air limousine had seen the brief fight and had called for help, in which case she should see commandos and combat robots arrive in minutes, hopefully. When somebody returned to the torture chamber, it was unfortunately no commando, but rather Cardinal Fraolo, accompanied by two armed guards and by two powerful, scary-looking men wearing only loincloths and sandals. Fraolo walked to a position three paces in front of Vyyn and took long seconds to admire with a cruel smile her naked body before speaking in Latin.
‘’You were found with a weapon on you similar to your guard’s weapon, witch. You might as well confess now that you had come to kill His Holiness The Pope.’’
Vyyn threw him a contemptuous look, doing her best to hide her fear.
‘’You are both mad and stupid! My weapon can only stun, not kill, and it is meant only as a defensive weapon. I came to speak with the Pope and I demand to see him at once.’’
‘’You are in no position to demand anything, witch. Your people have already proved themselves to be atheists and blasphemers of the worst kind, so why should we believe anything that you or your people say?’’
‘’Why? Because attacking and jailing me will attract the wrath of my people on you, you idiot! You just signed your death warrant by causing the death of my bodyguard.’’
‘’Your bodyguard is inconsequential. As for you, you will now tell me what was the true goal of your visit to Rome.’’
‘’I already told you! I came to have diplomatic talks with The Pope.’’
‘’LIAR!’’ Shouted Fraolo before looking at the two men in loincloths. ‘’Make her tell the real reason for her coming to Rome. Keep her in one piece but try everything.’’
‘’Yes, Your Excellency!’’ Replied the senior jailer. ‘’We will start with whips.’’
‘’A good choice indeed. I may just stay and watch you work on her.’’
Fraolo then had a guard get a stool for him as the two jailers each grabbed short leather whips with multiple lanyards. Once seated, he gave a cold look at Vyyn, who now had cold sweat on her forefront.
‘’This is your last chance, witch: why did you come to Rome?’’
‘’I told you already! I only wanted to talk with The Pope.’’
‘’As you wish! Flog her simultaneously on both the back and the front, men.’’
With mean smiles on their faces, the two jailers then started using their whips, quickly making bloody marks appear on Vyyn’s back and chest and making her scream in agony with each lash. Vyyn endured over forty such lashes before passing out from the pain. Getting up from his stool, Fraolo approached the unconscious Centaurian and passed a hand over her bloodied body, taking his time to fondle her bruised breasts and her genitals. Stepping back, he looked at the senior jailer, who still held his whip.
‘’Wake her up by rubbing some salt on her wounds, then whip her a bit more. If she continues to resist, stretch her on the rack and use the hot pokers.’’
‘’We will do our best, Your Excellency.’’
‘’Then, I will leave you to your work. Advise me if she changes her tune.’’
Satisfied with himself and also quite aroused by the sight of Vyyn’s naked, tortured body, Fraolo then left the torture chamber with his two guards. He smiled with sadistic pleasure when he heard a long, horrible scream coming from the dungeon as he was climbing up the stairs leading to the exit.
Vyyn was crying uncontrollably from the continuous, intense pain from her wounds as the two jailers undid her manacles to carry her to the nearby stretching rack. She had by now passed out a total of three times and had been extensively flogged all over her body, including her groin area, on top of being branded twice with red hot pokers. The jailers roughly put her down on top of the rack, then tied her wrists and ankles to the manacles of the torture device. Using a wheel mechanism to put tension in her body, they cranked the mechanism until her back was off the rack, with her body painfully stretched as straight as a plank. The senior jailer took the time to fondle her bruised and bleeding left breast, making her shout with pain, then brutally grabbed her hair to force her to look at him.
‘’You want the pain to stop, witch? Then confess to your true intentions. Did you come to kill His Holiness The Pope?’’
‘’N…no, I swear.’’ Said Vyyn, her voice weak and nearly extinct from the screaming.
‘’Too bad for you! Marcus, tighten her by a couple of notches.’’
The other jailer did so at once, making Vyyn scream again as the ligaments in her joints started stretching past their normal limit. The senior jailer then went to the brazier to get a red hot poker and came back to show the poker to Vyyn, who looked at it with terror.
‘’Where shall I apply this poker now? On your right nipple or on your cunt? SPEAK!’’
‘’I…I only told you the truth. Please, stop!’’
‘’Well, you asked for it, witch.’’
The senior jailer made a show of hesitating between her right breast and her groin area, approaching his hot poker to one point, then to the other. He was holding it only a a couple of centimeters from her clitoris, letting it slowly roast and making Vyyn tighten her jaws to avoid screaming again, when the door of the torture chamber suddenly opened. Looking up and expecting to see Cardinal Fraolo, the senior jailer straightened up on seeing that the Pope himself was here, accompanied by four guards. Pope Nicolas the First embraced the scene with scandalized eyes before shouting at the jailers.
‘’STOP THOSE TORTURES AT ONCE AND FREE THAT WOMAN!’’
As the jailers frantically released the tension in the mechanism of the rack in order to free Vyyn, Pope Nicolas looked around the chamber for some clothes to cover the unfortunate young woman. Seeing none, he took off his own cape, made of fine silk, and gave it to his head guard.
‘’Use this to cover her nudity, then carry her gently out to my private apartments.’’
‘’Right away, Your Holiness!’’
Pope Nicolas then eyed severely the two jailers, who were finishing to untie Vyyn from the rack.
‘’Who ordered you to torture that woman?’’
‘’Cardinal Fraolo, Your Holiness. He suspected that this witch had come to assassinate you and wanted her to confess.’’ Answered the senior jailer, apprehensive about what could follow next.
‘’Cardinal Fraolo… And you thought that his orders were enough to cancel my prohibition about using torture to extract confessions?’’
When the jailers didn’t reply to that, the Pope looked at two of his guards.
‘’Chase these two men from my palace: I don’t want to see them again, ever! Then, go find Cardinal Fraolo and tell him that I want to see him at once in my throne room.’’
As the two guards expulsed the two jailers with the help of slaps from the flat of their swords, Pope Nicolas approached the sobbing Vyyn, who was being helped to a sitting position on top of the rack by the captain of the guards. Nicolas made a bitter grimace on seeing the severity of the woman’s torture wounds: those jailers had not been tender with her one bit. This in turn could very well attract a very fierce response from the people of the Human Expansion based in Toulouse: after more than two months of their presence in Francia, their reputation of immense power and knowledge had long spread across Europe and most of the rest of the World. If they decided that he, Nicolas, had condoned this, then he could expect death very soon. Bending forward, he spoke very softly to the sobbing young woman.
‘’Don’t worry anymore, my child: you are safe now and nobody will hurt you further. I am Pope Nicolas the First. What is your name?’’
‘’I…I am Doctor Vyyn Drelan, historian and sociologist. I was sent to Rome as a diplomatic envoy by the Human Expansion, with the goal of speaking with you.’’
‘’You will soon be able to do just that, my child. First, though, you need to have your wounds treated.’’
Somehow, that prompted Vyyn to shake her head at once.
‘’No! I don’t want the attention of your doctors: they are ignoramuses and charlatans. I need to call my people, to get proper medical help.’’
‘’As you wish, my child. And how do you expect to contact your people?’’
‘’My clothes and personal effects: they contained a means for me to communicate with my people. I will need them back.’’
‘’I will make sure that you will get them. For the time being, let my guards carry you to my apartments. We will talk further there.’’
Then letting the captain and one other guard carry away Vyyn, now wrapped in his cape, Nicolas made a quick tour of the cells with two guards, quickly finding the body of the unfortunate Xia Jong inside one cell. Now feeling truly grim, Nicolas had his guards bring out the body, to carry it to the courtyard behind his palace, where it would lay under a blanket until such time as his people could retrieve him.
Once back in his private apartments and with Vyyn Drelan being gently laid down on her side in the Pope’s bed, Nicolas had one of his secretaries go find the effects and clothes that belonged to her. As the secretary went on his quest, Nicolas walked resolutely to his throne room, finding a nervous Cardinal Fraolo waiting for him while watched by two papal guards. Nicolas didn’t say a word or even looked at Fraolo until he sat on his throne and eyed severely his cardinal and First Secretary, who was kneeling in front of him.
‘’By what right did you have this woman from the future arrested and tortured? What were you hoping to accomplish by all this? DO YOU HAVE THE FAINTEST IDEA OF THE DAMAGE YOU JUST CAUSED, YOU IMBECILE?’’
‘’But, Your Holiness, I could not possibly allow such a blasphemer and witch to see you. She was found to be armed and probably wanted to assassinate you.’’
‘’BULLSHIT! IF THOSE PEOPLE FROM THE FUTURE WANTED ME DEAD, THEY WOULD HAVE SIMPLY COME IN ONE OF THEIR FLYING WARSHIPS AND RAZED MY PALACE TO THE GROUND. NOW, THANKS TO YOU, THEY MAY JUST DO THAT VERY SOON.’’
‘’Your Holiness, you know what kind of atheists these people are and how they publicly contradict everything that is said in the Bible. What possible good could come from talking with them?’’
‘’What possible good? Start by possibly avoiding utter destruction at their hands if we prove ourselves to be too rigid and inflexible to their taste. We are talking about people who basically deposed or rendered nearly powerless half of the kings and princes of Europe, and this in less than two months. They also massacred with apparent ease all the Viking armies that had been causing so much destruction and death across the continent. Don’t you think that such powerful people deserve to at least be heard by me? However, I don’t expect you to ever understand that. Now, go pack your things and leave Rome! Return to Ravenna and stay there: you are not my private secretary anymore. And count yourself lucky that I don’t hand you over to the people from the future. Guards, make sure that Cardinal Fraolo leaves Rome today…for good!’’
‘’Yes, Your Holiness!’’
Without another look at Fraolo, Nicolas got up from his throne and walked back to his private apartments, fuming. The problem for him was that many of his cardinals would have condoned, some enthusiastically, Fraolo’s actions today. When saying that the people from the future were publicly contradicting the most sacred teachings of the Church, Fraolo was only telling the truth. Unfortunately, the people from the future were way more powerful and dangerous than any nobleman or churchman could ever be. As different as their beliefs could be to those the Church held about God, Man and the Universe, Nicolas still needed to find some middle ground with them, if that was at all possible.
When he got back to his apartments, it was to see that his second secretary had already found the clothes and possessions of the young woman and had given them to her. Nicolas actually entered his bedroom to find Vyyn speaking apparently to herself in a language he didn’t know while laying on her side in his bed. Looking more carefully while approaching her, the Pope then saw that she was speaking to a bracelet with a small luminous window in it. A female voice in turn came out of that bracelet, making Nicolas step back and hesitate: this had all the appearance of magic. He then shook himself back to reality: he had heard many times in the recent past about the ability of those people to communicate together even through great distances, using their incredible science. Listening carefully to the young woman, who was still obviously in great pain, her desperate tone of voice, mixed with sobs, made it evident to Nicolas that she was pleading for help. He could have made his guards cut that conversation, but that would certainly have only aggravated the situation for him. While said to be compassionate and generous with people in need, the people from the future were also widely known by now to be ruthless with those who attracted their ire. The young woman finally ended her call and let her head go down on the bed while a spasm of pain shook her body. That was when her tearful eyes saw Nicolas, still standing and waiting in a corner of the bedroom.
‘’I…I just called for help, Your Holiness.’’
‘’I understood that much, my child. Again, I am truly sorry for what happened to you.’’
‘’And I thank you for making those horrible tortures stop. I did mention that to my friend and superior in Toulouse. Soldiers will now come, but at least they won’t shoot on sight now.’’
Nicolas’ nervousness redoubled at those last words, but he had already expected such an outcome.
‘’How long will it be before your soldiers arrive here, Doctor Drelan?’’
‘’A few minutes at the most.’’
Nicolas was seriously shaken by those words: a few minutes only to react and arrive from another country? No wonder that no one could even hope to oppose with any success those people. His next words were for his captain of guards, who was still present in the bedroom.
‘’Pass the word at once to all your guards: soldiers from the future will arrive soon to recuperate their envoy. Nobody is to resist them or block them from entering the palace. I will take my chances with them.’’
The officer nearly protested that order but thought better of it and didn’t reply, instead saluting Nicolas before turning around and leaving at a hurried step.
As they were now alone in the bedroom, Nicolas went to sit on one corner of the bed, so that he could speak more easily with Vyyn, and eyed with sorrow her torture marks. Judicial torture was something that he had been trying for some time already to have abolished, or at the least make the Church condemn it across Christendom. That one of his own cardinals had used such tortures only made him more bitter about it.
‘’What now? How can I repair the wrong that was just done?’’
‘’You can’t!’’ Replied Vyyn, clenching her teeth as the bruises and cuts from the whip lashes burned like hell. ‘’Too many of your followers would have done like your Fraolo bastard. Don’t deny it! You may personally be a decent man, but your Church is too corrupt, too intolerant and ignorant to change quickly to any significant degree. I had come to propose a gentlemen’s agreement between us, where we would not interfere with your Church if it promised in exchange to stop persecuting those who don’t agree with your religious doctrine, but I now see that even that was too optimistic.’’
‘’Then, what will your people do next?’’
‘’I will counsel them to put your Church on firm notice to stop accusing and prosecuting people simply because they expressed opinions that contradict your flawed beliefs and doctrines. If we see anyone persecuted or harmed for such reasons, then we will act…decisively. It is high time that your precious Church start following the words of tolerance, compassion and generosity preached by your own prophet Jesus.’’
That left Nicolas pensive for a long moment as he debated her words inside his head. When he finally looked back at Vyyn, it was in time to see her pass out, probably from a combination of excessive pain and loss of blood. Nicolas went to her at once, hoping fervently that she was not going to die right now, right here. If she did, then he was as good as dead himself. Thankfully she was still breathing. Nicolas was tempted for a moment to call his doctors in, but remembered Vyyn’s opinion about them and stayed where he was, holding rather uselessly her hand with the idea of comforting her.
He was still holding Vyyn’s hand when the noise and vibration of heavy feet landing on the floor of his bedroom made him turn his head towards his balcony. His hair nearly rose on his head at the sight of the three gigantic men wearing full metal armor and pointing tubes of some sort at him. They had apparently come from the direction of the balcony, but how? His bedroom was on the upper floor of the palace.
‘’MOVE AWAY FROM DOCTOR DRELAN! NOW!’’
Thoroughly intimidated by the armored giants, Nicolas got up at once from the bed and went to a far corner, but didn’t flee the bedroom: the giants might have killed him just for that. Two more persons, a man and a woman, then flew in and landed on his balcony, holding the handles of what looked like a sort of coffin half made of glass. The two newcomers, speaking in the same unknown language Vyyn Drelan had used, then went quickly to the unconscious woman on the bed. After a quick examination of her, using instruments that Nicolas didn’t understand or recognized, she was put inside the floating coffin, with the glass cover being closed over her. The duo left as quickly as they had come, towing the coffin between them and flying out by the balcony, heading towards a big spherical ship made of metal that now floated above Rome. Nicolas was still following them with his incredulous eyes when one of the armored giants addressed him in a harsh tone.
‘’ARE YOU POPE NICOLAS THE FIRST?’’
‘’Yes, I am! I had nothing to do with that disgrace, I swear.’’
The giant lowered the tube he was holding and replied to him in a much softer tone.
‘’We know! Where is Cardinal Fraolo right now?’’
‘’He should be in the process of packing up in his room, one floor up in the West wing of this palace. I fired him after what he just did to your envoy.’’
‘’That bastard tortured our envoy, and you only fired him?’’ Asked the giant, sarcastic, before looking at his two companions and giving them orders in their incomprehensible language. The two soldiers then ran out of the bedroom, no doubt heading towards Fraolo’s bedroom in order to apprehend him. The armored soldier that was left in the room then switched back to Latin.
‘’Please stay here for the time being, Pope Nicolas: someone is on her way to speak to you.’’
Both relief and surprise came to Nicolas at these words: relief, as this probably means that he was not going to be killed; surprise at the willingness of these people to still speak with him after such an incident.
‘’Your people are still interested in discussing with me?’’
The soldier, whose face was hidden by his closed helmet visor, shook his head in response.
‘’Not discuss, but rather speak to you. Since your followers are too fanatical to understand common sense, we will now use the threat of force to make your Church understand its new situation. You better sit down in the meantime: it will be a few minutes before our spokesperson arrives.’’
With the little that he could do now, Nicolas obeyed the soldier and went to sit on the chair of his private desk to wait.
That wait went on for a good twenty minutes, by which time the two armored soldiers who had gone upstairs had returned with the announcement that Cardinal Fraolo was now dead, executed by them. Nicolas was thus quite grim and anxious when another group of newcomers entered his bedroom by the door, making him stand up. To his surprise, his new visitors consisted of a mature Oriental woman escorted by four armored soldiers. The woman, dressed in an exquisitely embroidered silk dress, examined coldly Nicolas for a moment before speaking to him in Latin.
‘’I am Senior Administrator Lynn Tsu, present leader of the Human Expansion on Earth. I presume that you are Pope Nicolas the First?’’
‘’I am, Lady Tsu! I am most…’’
‘’I will be doing the speaking here, Pope Nicolas!’’ Cut at once the woman in a firm, authoritarian tone. ‘’Know that, along with premeditated murder, two types of crimes rate the death penalty in the society of the Human Expansion: enslavement and torture. Your Cardinal Fraolo has already paid for his crimes