Public Domain Science Fiction Writer Arico Chronicles contents Wai Z contents

The compassion showed to imprisoned people was always a good guide as to the potential maturity of developing species. And to this end, based on the village of the Gaia-favs, these ruai actually measured up well. In terms of objectivity however he had not visited other facilities so he could not be sure. So he did have a justification for his reckless act – giving himself up for capture. But his strategy was much more personal than that, he could shoulder the blame for Aldris and her children leaving the facility and now that they had returned no further punishment was necessary. And of course they could not leave without his help, he could point out to the guardians. So although his action was far too impulsive that action in itself would not cause sanction from the UG, others would, he already knew as union with new species was seriously frowned on because non-interference at this stage was the approach. However UG sanction was not his concern, what he was looking for was to salvage some sort of credibility for his mission. Falling in love had completely distracted him from the three briefs, and he needed to redirect his approach. Living in desolation had completely depressed him leading to an immature response to love because of all the local factors. Whatever that love meant inside him could not have any form of fruition because of the baggage carried by the loved. He had no hope left, that love would have to remain unrequited and he would have to live with that; his maturity could do that – most of the time. He had decided there was no way to make the Gaia-favs leaders, the ruai control was not based on merit but accumulation. And for the 8 couples accumulation meant little. The couples had none of the values of the ruai so even if there were some artificial way of promoting them up the ranks it would be an ineffective deception as once in power the structure would inhibit them from any of the compassionate actions expected of Gaia. That structure could only be removed by intervention because such immature people as these ruai would be unable to relinquish their addiction to power and greed. In a sense this capture was a final benchmark, how did these ruai react to other species, species whose abilities were demonstrably superior? He realised that the guardians in this village were not the ruai – and were perhaps some distance from the real power, but beginning here would be interesting as this village had demonstrated such compassion towards the maturing people. Also from within the village he could gauge how to help the other Gaia-favs. As a prisoner he could contact them and work with them, these people lived with contact on a daily basis, the guardians were aware of this; he would have no difficulty disguising additional contact. But despite all of this sense he knew he was being misguided by his unrequited love, and it was this that pulled him into what could easily be another error of judgement. He walked in to the village square and asked for Esthaus. “Concerning?” asked the duty guardian. “The return of the escaped family,” replied Corders laconically. Immediately additional guards were called over, and Corders was escorted to Esthaus’ office. He sat down with two guardians behind, and Esthaus came in. “You mentioned the return of the escaped family,” he mentioned, appearing casual “which family?” “It was because of me that Aldris and her two children were forced to leave here,” Corders informed Esthaus “I wished to interview them outside of the village as part of my brief so they agreed to come with me. Now they have returned.” Esthaus looked quizzically at this but chose to let it pass. “And what brief is this?” he asked. “UG envoy to earth,” was Corders reply, a reply that Corders made to have full impact. “Envoy to earth,” he repeated “I understand”, but of course he didn’t. “I would like to explain,” continued Corders as if accepting Esthaus at his word, and he detailed how UG always monitored developing species, especially those with fastlight, how he had come to investigate this facility because of the contact that he had not met elsewhere, and how in order to continue his investigation he had demanded that Aldris and her children had come to his craft so he could complete his evaluation. Esthaus listened patiently, and then asked “And now you have returned Aldris and her two children?” Corders nodded. “As you could imagine your visit is very important,” he told Corders with apparent candour “I must report this to my superiors and see what they want me to do. Please wait.” Corders sat there and thought how civilly he was being treated, this was a good sign. Or so he thought. In reality Esthaus’ reaction was bordering on ridicule, and to him at face value Corders’ assertions were off the charts – especially with the missing family. But to simply laugh at him had some holes, how had they gone outside the fence? Was Corders anything to do with that? And why had they not come back? However those were not strong enough reasons for him to kick the matter upstairs – because they would laugh at him; and that might affect this assignment. More investigation was needed, but how? Instead the military mind kicked in – follow protocol; Esthaus reported the matter up the line and banged up Corders. Corders had hoped for a better response but equally he was not surprised. It simply hastened his agenda. Firstly he searched for Aldris, she nor her family were here. Disappointed but no real surprise there, in fact on reflection he would have been surprised if she had done as he asked. So he began with her father. From his cell he contacted Arico, explained who he was, explained that the situation on earth was going to deteriorate whilst the UG tried to help Gaia redress the balance, freed his dead bolt, and advised Arico to escape before matters got worse here in their prison. Yes Arico had spirit, he could see some of Aldris in him; he felt sure Arico would try something. However when he contacted the rest of the couples their minds had grown flabby in this soft prison. They heard what he was offering but did not see the need to escape. They would wait and see – their prerogative. In the morning Corders had gone, these primitives did not have a prison that could hold him. And that same day began the intervention.