08:51 (Paris Time)
Monday, January 2, 862 C.E.
Apartment 26-W-05, Toulouse Tower
Human Expansion enclave of Toulouse
Western Francia
Grégoire, answering the bell chime of his apartment’s door, opened the door and found himself facing the young, eleven year-old Duon Tarang, a good friend of his own daughter Élyse, who was twelve years old. On a normal Monday, both children would have been in school but, with New Year falling on a Sunday this year, January 2 was considered as a holiday by Human Expansion custom.
‘’Hello, Duon! I suppose that you are here to see Élyse?’’
‘’That is correct, Mister Grégoire.’’ Replied the boy with his customary politeness. ‘’I wanted to invite her to go with me at the amusement park of the tower. If your other children want to come too, I won’t mind.’’
‘’They may just accept your offer, Duon.’’ Said the fisherman before twisting his head around and shouting towards his living room. ‘’ÉLYSE! DUON IS HERE!’’
Grégoire then let the Centaurian boy in, as his daughter Élyse came at a run from the lounge. While she was one year older than Duon, she was also much smaller than him, the result of growing on a poor diet until a mere few months ago. However, that had not stopped the Centaurian boy from becoming attracted to Élyse from the first time they had met, thanks to her sweetness and beauty. She in turn appreciated Duon’s gentleness and intelligence, something she demonstrated again by kissing him on the cheek.
‘’Hello, Duon! To what do I owe your visit this morning?’’
‘’Well, I wanted to invite you to go with me at the amusement park of the tower. If you want to bring along your brothers and sisters, then they are welcome too.’’
Seeing his daughter hesitate then, and understanding why she did so, Grégoire cut in on the conversation.
‘’I will accompany your brothers and sisters to the park, Élyse, so that you can concentrate on Duon.’’
‘’Thanks, Father!’’ Replied Élyse, relieved. ‘’Just give me a minute to go change, Duon. I won’t be long.’’
Élyse actually took three minutes to replace her pajamas with a T-shirt and a short skirt, plus a pair of running shoes. By the time she came out of her bedroom, her younger sister Isabelle and her brothers Pierre and Simon were also lined up at the door beside Duon and her father Grégoire.
‘’Armand is not coming?’’ Asked Élyse on not seeing her older brother. Grégoire shook his head while smiling.
‘’No! He needs to study his mathematics.’’
Understanding that this was most probably not Armand’s decision, Élyse did not insist and took the hand of Duon, giving him a big, warm smile.
‘’I am ready, Duon.’’
‘’Then, let’s go! The amusement park will open in five minutes.’’
The group of five children and one adult eagerly walked to the nearest bank of elevators, calling a cabin and then going down to ground lobby level, where they exited the cabin and walked to the main entrance of the southeast annex of the Toulouse Tower, a rectangular building directly attached to the southeast side of the tower and which was 400 meter long by 160 meter deep by eighty meter high. Three other similar annexes were attached to the base of the tower, between the huge corner support pillars of the building, each housing different services and facilities. The southeast annex contained a number of entertainment facilities, including a vast kindergarten complex with playground, an amusement park and a holographic game parlor, plus a dance club and a number of entertainment clubs for adults. The other three annexes respectively contained a medical complex, a sports complex and an educational complex, while the open space of the huge central lobby of the tower was surrounded by an internal ring of shops, boutiques and offices built on ten levels. Once past the main entrance to the Southeast Annex, the group went through the admission counters, where they paid the entrance fee of one silver denier per adult or five oboles per children under the age of thirteen. After passing the admission counters, the group found itself in a cavernous enclosed space, with the external walls being made of big armor glass panes that provided plenty of daylight. A large variety of kiosks, roundabouts and other rides, including a full-fledged rollercoaster, offered themselves to them, prompting Grégoire in giving the children a warning.
‘’Now remember, kids: we stay together as a group at all times. No running away individually to some particular ride. We have ample time to tour the whole park together…and have fun together.’’
The children, the oldest one being Élyse at twelve years old, all nodded their heads in understanding before each suggesting to start at different rides. Grégoire sighed, understanding that he was going to have to lead the group if he wanted them to stay together. Arbitrarily choosing one path to the right of the entrance, he slowly led the five children past various rides and kiosks, stopping for a moment at the ones that attracted the whims of one or more child, time for them to try the ride, then continuing on. There were already quite a few other customers in the park, even at this early hour, but Grégoire put that on the fact that it was a holiday. New Year was actually the most important holiday of the year for the people of the Human Expansion, who otherwise didn’t have many of them, compared to the multitude of holidays celebrated in the Christian calendar used in Western Francia. Still, he saw a few Carolingians mixed in with the early crowd having fun at the park, which was opened to the citizens of Toulouse and was hugely popular with them.
The group arrived maybe forty minutes after in front of an attraction that was announced as newly opened. The description on the entrance poster made Duon yell with approval, while the Carolingians didn’t understand at first what it was.
‘’YES! A HOUSE OF FEAR! LET’S GO IN!’’
‘’A house of fear? What’s that, Duon?’’ Asked Élyse, intrigued.
‘’A house of fear is a dark place where holographic images and recorded sounds are used to simulate all kinds of scary things, like monsters, demons and ghosts. You have to go through it while getting scared to death by sudden apparitions. Everything is just illusions, so we risk nothing actually. It can be real fun when the simulations are done well. You will love it, I am sure!’’
‘’Oh, okay! Let’s go in, then.’’
The excited children then lined up at the entrance wicket of the House of Fear, which actually looked more like the entrance of a dark tunnel. Duon couldn’t help ask the attendant about the late opening of his attraction compared to the other rides and kiosks. The young man nodded his head somberly at the question.
‘’The original owner and designer of this attraction didn’t survive the destruction of Alpha Centauri, unfortunately, and some of his programming was still incomplete. I only recently acquired the attraction and completed the programming, but it took me a few weeks to do that. However, I am sure that you kids will love it: I can set the show to various levels of scariness, in order to fit it to specific age groups. Since you have preteens in your group, I will set the show to a relatively mild level for you.’’
‘’Uh, please don’t set it too low, mister.’’ Asked Duon, making the attendant smile.
‘’Don’t worry, boy: you will be scared, that I promise you. You can go in now.’’
The children didn’t have to be told twice and nearly ran inside the dark tunnel, with Grégoire going in last. The said tunnel made a ninety degree turn shortly after the entrance, with the first illusion showing after the turn. Duon soon saw that the attendant had not been bragging, as one scary apparition after another attracted concerts of screams from both the kids and from Grégoire.
The group emerged from the tunnel, next to the entrance, after five minutes that felt very long to the poor Grégoire. As for the children, they clapped hands and grinned with pleasure after a few seconds taken to regain their composure.
‘’THAT WAS FUN!’’ Exclaimed young Isabelle. ‘’We should come here more often, Father.’’
‘’Uh, please take pity on your father’s poor heart, Isabelle. Next time, I will let you kids go inside without me.’’
The group was about to proceed to the next attraction when Duon spotted Ann Shelton, approaching on the path and accompanied by a large group of nobles apparently touring the amusement park. Excusing himself with Élyse for a moment, Duon ran to Ann and stopped in front of her.
‘’Good morning, Doctor Shelton! Have you seen Vyyn lately? How is she?’’
His question brought a sober look on Ann’s face.
‘’Vyyn is recovering well enough physically, Duon. However, she will need time to go over her horrible experience in Rome.’’
‘’I am sorry to hear that. Please tell her that we miss her and that we would love to see her soon.’’
‘’I will! Thank you for caring, Duon.’’
The teenager then left to join back with his group, which went to the next attraction. Count Raymond of Toulouse gave a concerned look at Ann once the boy was away.
‘’I haven’t seen Vyyn myself in two weeks. How is she, really?’’
‘’Unfortunately, her psychological wounds will take longer to heal than her physical wounds, Count Raymond. She was tortured horribly in Rome and it takes time to recover from such an ordeal. Our best psychologists and therapists are however taking care of her in New Zealand and I have good hopes that she will recover completely in the next weeks. Have you heard anything on your side about the Church’s reaction to the Rome incident?’’
Somehow, her question seemed to put Raymond in a bad mood and he made a bitter smirk.
‘’Yes, but not the kind of reaction you or I would have hoped for. The local churchmen in Toulouse, with Bishop Helisachar at their head, ranted and raved about what they called an ‘impudent visit forced on His Holiness The Pope by one of the witches from the future’. When Helisachar spewed those words at the Christmas mass in the Saint-Sernin Basilica, I stormed out after telling him publicly that he was full of shit. I am told that what he collected in alms from his parishioners at the end of the mass was quite meager indeed as a result of his mean words.’’
King Ethelbert of Wessex, a much younger man than Raymond at 27 but a devout person, frowned on hearing that.
‘’May I ask what exactly happened in Rome to that friend of yours, Lady Shelton?’’
‘’You may, Your Majesty.’’ Replied Ann before spending two minutes to tell the Saxon King about Vyyn Drelan’s misadventures in Rome. Her version of that story made him frown even more.
‘’That cardinal took on him to have a diplomatic envoy arrested and tortured, without even telling his Pope about it? He went way over his head and certainly deserved death. I would have done the same to the Bishop of Winchester if he would have pulled a stunt like that on me. For what it is worth, I promise you to counter any false stories about this that could reach my court, Lady Ann.’’
‘’And I am grateful for that, Your Majesty.’’ Replied Ann, bowing her head. Ethelbert bowed to her in reply, knowing very well who had the real power in their present group, which included all the main nobles presently allied with the Human Expansion. The Lord Forester of Bruggia, Baudouin Bras de Fer, pointed at the tunnel from which the children had run out in near panic a few moments ago.
‘’May I ask what kind of attraction this ‘House of Fear’ is, Lady Ann?’’
‘’That, my dear Baudouin is a place that could scare even the bravest of warriors.’’ Answered Ann, hoping to entice a few of her most stalwart guests in entering that attraction. Her trap worked better than she had expected, with Baudouin Bras de Fer, Prince Alfred of Wessex, Eudes and Bernard of Toulouse, Margrave Robert le Fort of Neustria and Sire Boson d’Ardennes protesting as one that nothing could scare them. To her surprise, Richilde d’Ardennes, the sister of Boson, and Judith of France, the new wife of Baudouin Bras de Fer, also announced themselves to be willing to enter the House of Fear. Collecting first their swords and daggers, so that they would not hurt anyone by overreacting to the holographic illusions inside the tunnel, Ann then approached the attendant and programmer of the attraction to whisper in his ear.
‘’We have a bunch of tough heroes here: crank the juice to maximum, mister.’’
‘’I will be happy to do so, Doctor Shelton.’’ Replied the young man with a grin, who then readjusted his controls and activated extra illusions. Ann joined back with King Ethelbert, Raymond of Toulouse, Count Bivin de Gorze of the Ardennes and their wives, a malicious smile on her face as the younger nobles entered the dark tunnel.
‘’This should be fun! You did well not to go in there, gentlemen: I would have hated to lose any of you from a sudden heart attack.’’
‘’Is that place really that scary, Lady Ann?’’ Asked Bivin de Gorze, making Ann’s head nod once.
‘’When set to maximum effect? Oh yes! Even a Viking Berserker would think twice before going back in for seconds.’’
A concert of muffled screams was then heard from inside the tunnel, making Ann grin.
‘’I can hear that the fun has started already, my friends.’’
‘’What was that, Baudouin?’’ Asked Judith, her heart still beating at an accelerated pace, as she clung to him in order to reassure herself. Baudouin, who could feel the adrenaline rushing through his arteries, did his best to sound unshaken.
‘’Some sort of ghoulish demon, I suppose. If those things are really only illusions, then they are most realistic ones, I must say. Let’s continue to advance, cautiously.’’
The group of eight nobles then slowly resumed its advance along the dark tunnel, which was dimly illuminated by a few well-spaced lights with minimal outputs. The walls, floor and ceiling looked like they were made of flat, polished dark stone, which added to the creepiness of the place, while scary noises kept coming from all sides. Richilde, who was closely following her brother Boson and who was last of the group, twisted her head to look if anyone or anything was behind them. Her hair nearly rose on her head and she pushed a scream of pure terror when she found herself looking at a ghoulish, repugnant creature standing less than one meter behind her, its wide mouth distorted in a grimace that showed long, pointed teeth. The creature was also emitting some kind of gurgling sound as it was raising a deformed hand with long, sharp claws towards Richilde’s face. In her terror, the teenager pushed hard her brother in the back as she attempted to get away from the apparition. Her scream also made the others look back, in time to also see the creature, with more similar creatures coming behind it and advancing on the group. The nobles broke into a run as one to escape the apparitions, negotiating the next turn of the tunnel. They however had to stop cold after a few meters, as a seemingly solid wall blocked the tunnel. Robert le Fort put his hand on that wall to feel it, as the other nobles pressed together around him, with the ghoulish creatures appearing past the corner and advancing on them.
‘’IT’S A REAL WALL, NOT AN ILLUSION!’’
‘’WHAT DO WE DO NOW?’’ Asked in a panicky voice Judith of France, her eyes on the approaching creatures. Those were so real-looking that she had already forgotten that they were supposed to be simple illusions. Her eyes bulged with fear when the large stone plates forming the floor of the tunnel started suddenly opening with loud thuds one after the other, unmasking a seemingly bottomless pit under them. The plates were also opening closer and closer to the group, which reflectively pressed against each other. They now could see that the bottom of the pit, which was a good ten meters deep, was lined with sinister vertical spikes on which a number of decomposing corpses were impaled.
‘’OH MY GOD!’’ Only had time to shout Judith before the floor plates seemingly opened under the feet of the group. What she saw then was the four sides of the pit starting to go past her at increasing speed, as if she was falling, while the bottom of the pit grew towards her and the others. Betrayed by her senses, which were tricked by the holographic images generated around her, she genuinely felt like she was falling and screamed with horror as she saw the spikes coming up fast. The spikes and the sides of the pit suddenly disappeared just as she thought that she was about to be impaled at the bottom of the pit. Shaking like a leaf and looking up from her crouched position, she saw that she and the others, who had also crouched instinctively in anticipation of hitting the bottom of the pit, were back in a solid tunnel of stone plates.
‘’G…God! Was this only an illusion?’’
Robert le Fort swallowed hard, his heart still beating fast, before answering her.
‘’Apparently, Lady Judith. These people are decidedly masters of illusions.’’
He was about to get back up when a long, wide tongue of flames flew past their heads, making him flatten himself against the floor as a ferocious scream made the whole tunnel vibrate. Robert’s eyes then opened wide on seeing what was now approaching them in the tunnel.
‘’A DRAGON!’’
Without another word, the whole group got up and ran in a panicky attempt at escaping the dragon, with more terrifying apparitions materializing along their way.
King Ethelbert of Wessex, waiting outside the tunnel with the others who had not gone inside the House of Fear, burst out in laughter when he saw the nobles that had gone in run out in of the tunnel in utter panic. Even his young brother Alfred, a boy renowned for his courage, ran out, fear evident on his face, while Richilde and Judith were screaming nearly hysterically. The five men, one boy and two girls broke out of their run and stopped to collect back their wits only once well out of the tunnel’s exit. Ann, followed by the other nobles, then approached them and smiled with amusement on seeing the residual fear in their eyes.
‘’So, what do you think of this House of Fear, my friends?’’
‘’I…I must say that I was never this scared before in my life, Ann.’’ Replied haltingly Robert le Fort while trying to calm down. ‘’Those illusions were so realistic…’’
‘’I swear that I am never going back inside that place.’’ Said Judith of France, both hands on her heart and nearly hyperventilating. Her declaration made those who had not gone inside laugh again before Ann patted gently her shoulder to help reassure Judith.
‘’Well, I suppose that we could go have a drink after this, so that you could all calm down, my friends. We will then be able to talk about serious things. In the meantime, would you like to continue visiting this amusement park, or do you prefer to go start our meeting?’’
Of a common accord, the group decided to continue the tour of the amusement park, with Ann still guiding them around and accompanying them on a few rides. In the process, the whole group agreed to try the rollercoaster, bringing out more screams of fright from many of them. They finally decided to cut the tour of the park at lunch hour, at which time the group went up to the main cafeteria of the tower, near its summit. King Ethelbert, who was on his first visit to Toulouse, couldn’t help be left bewildered and incredulous on seeing Ann lining up behind other citizens of the Human Expansion, to be served at the service counter.
‘’Do you always wait your turn like this to be served, Lady Shelton?’’
‘’Yes, I do, Your Majesty: my people is very egalitarian in all aspects. Even our political leader, Senior Administrator Lynn Tsu, goes in the waiting line to be served. Also, everybody gets served the same quality and quantity of food. This is made possible because our food production methods eliminated centuries ago any food shortages or famines in my society. When we arrived here last September, we were then faced with our first real food shortage in over a millennium and decided to ration everybody until we could correct that food shortage. Thankfully, our hydroponic cultures and our new farms in this tower and in New Zealand have started recently to produce foodstuff in quantity, supplemented by the trade links we have cultivated with other parts of the planet during the last three months. While certain food items are still in short supply and rationed, all our basic staple foods needs are now being met. I of course cannot in all honesty encourage you now to do the same in your kingdom, as your agricultural system is still straining to simply provide the bare essentials to most of your population, but we are certainly willing and ready to help you improve your agricultural output. I in fact intend to discuss how to do that and much more during lunch.’’
With Ethelbert and the other nobles raising an ear at those last words, Ann led them down the service counter, describing to them the various choices available on today’s menu, including items that had been unknown to many of them until today, like rice and potatoes. The group finally sat down at two adjacent tables in the middle of the cafeteria, with hundreds of other people eating around them. Ann waited a while before starting to seriously speak, in order to give a chance to her guests to sample their food and relax a bit after their emotions at the amusement park. It was actually Ethelbert who pushed her with a question into speaking about her future plans.
‘’So, Lady Shelton, how do you propose to help my farmers in producing more food?’’
‘’We actually have a few ways to achieve that, Your Majesty. First, know that the first phase of my people’s settlement and industrialization plan has recently been completed. All of the prefabricated facilities and buildings that we brought with us from Alpha Centauri are now fully functional, occupied and operating. Also, as I told earlier, our first crops have started to be harvested. As a result of all this, a sizeable part of our construction machinery and production facilities is now available for what I would call ‘expansion projects’, meaning projects meant to help our society on Earth grow and expand as more and more of our people are awakened from cold sleep. Even a tiny part of that machinery could make a huge difference for other people on Earth. To be specific, we are now in a position to be able to start producing in quantity simple farm tools, like steel plows, to be sold at very low prices to your farmers. Furthermore, we are ready to produce advanced robotic farm machinery that will then be loaned to you and the others around this table, and this on a rotating basis, in order to help your farmers boost the productivity of their fields. We will also help by providing fertilizers and high output seeds and by building for you improved irrigation systems. As our official allies in this world, your lands will be the first to benefit from our help in this. Construction machinery that is now available on a part time basis will also start soon to build support infrastructures, like roads and bridges, that will help commerce and the circulation of goods and people in your respective domains.’’
The nobles around her exchanged hopeful looks, highly pleased by what she had said. It was however young Richilde who asked first a question, a bit hesitant.
‘’And…your people? What are you planning to do in the long term?’’
Ann paused for a moment, her eyes closed, before answering in a calm but fervent tone.
‘’We will then build up our industrial capacity and diversity, until we can produce here in this time period everything that had been available to us back in Alpha Centauri, including the building of spaceships. In a few decades, we should be ready to return into deep space, with one main goal in mind: to find and destroy the Morgs who killed so many billions of our people, and this before they could technologically evolve sufficiently to become a threat to other intelligent races. Never again will these monsters spread death and destruction across the galaxy.’’