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Arrhus fell on the side of the road, his whole body aching. He crawled under a bush and tore off the last remaining pieces of his uniform. The mob had nearly killed him when they had seen the four stars on his shoulder. He had been a general in the army of the greatest power on earth, Babylon. But there was no more army: there was no more Babylon.
He could see the fires raging through the city and the surrounding fields. Small groups of people roamed the once fertile valley like packs of wolves, attacking smaller groups and steering away from larger ones. And he knew that the same was happening all over the empire. All over the world in fact, as he had been told just the day before, when Babylon remained the only island of sanity in a world gone mad.
He remembered that there was a small river at the bottom of the hill, to the east. That’s as far as his weakened body would take him but he needed water.
He crawled at first, but got on his feet and could almost manage to run when he felt confident that the dense woods and thick underbrush would stealth his approach. Coming up to the riverbank he didn’t see anyone. As he fell to his knees and immersed his head in the water, he did not hear the man sneaking behind him. As soon as he came back up he felt a warm sensation on the front of his neck as the knife sliced his throat. He tried to turn to face his nemesis but fell backward in the river. His body had just given up.
He never saw the face of his killer; he could only see shapes and shadows. And he felt at peace there, finally, the river taking him downstream, away from Babylon. As he started to drift away, he dreamed of a time filled with happiness. Just a month ago.. a life away.
****************************
It was Arrhus’ first time in the Palace, his first appearance at the Grand Council of Babylon. The room where the Council gathered was relatively small, in the middle of this gigantic palace. He stood at the end of the large white marble slab that formed the top of the table. He had never seen marble so pure, marked only by a few dark green veins. And in the middle of it was the famous “Eye of the Emperor”.
" A strange rock formation, that's all it is." he thought. But he could clearly see an eye shape, formed by a large vein of dark grey marble against the white of the slab, that seemed to separate in two smaller veins and then came back together to form a single vein about half an arms length further. But what made this so beautiful was the blue sapphire that was embedded between the two veins, a perfect iris to this eye.
Nabak, the emperor, was standing at his side.
“I heard a lot of good things about you, general Arrhus” Nabak said, “that tactic that you used against the red team was very innovative I’ve been told”
“To be honest, Your Majesty, I stole that from Hannibal. I was just lucky the Captain of the reds had not read he same books I have.”
The Emperor smiled. All around them, the other generals, admirals and various councillors to the throne were talking among themselves, acting as though they weren’t watching their leader and his newest General. Arrhus knew better. Politics was as much a part of the military career as discipline and patience. He would not be there if he did not possess all of those.
Nabak came closer and spoke in a soft voice.
“ You had the wit to learn from your lectures and to apply what you had learned to modern combat general, just like you have the good sense not to let yourself be impressed by this rock” he said, pointing to the “Eye”. “Thousands of people still think that I can see the future in it.”
The emperor started to walk away from him, raising his voice so that every one present in the room would hear him.
“That’s why you are here. You have proven, you have all proven that you can think on your feet, that you can adapt quickly to new situations. Babylon will need these abilities in the near future” The emperor turned to the crowd.
“Come forward, let’s begin this Grand Council!”
Everyone sat at the place that had been assigned to him by the person responsible for the ceremonial. The Grand Council was as much a tradition as the instrument by which the emperor decided the future of the empire. The ceremonial prescribed the order in which the councillors would present their State of the Empire report, and so they began.
The councillors delivered their reports, all of them stating the wealth and the power of the mighty empire. It simply had no equal on the face of this earth. The trades with the other civilisations, the scientific level that they had attained, their commercial weight and the size of their population and territory was unequalled.
And all that had been gained without waging a single war in the last 1600 years. Few Babylonians knew or would have believed that their ancestors had crushed the young Roman and French civilisations centuries ago. Most would have doubted even a scholar if he had told such a tale.
As far as they knew, their grandeur came from their commercial abilities. And they liked it that way.
And so their army, although it was certainly the best equipped and most powerful ever, was reduced to waging imaginary wars, the Blue team against the Red, constantly training to defend a country that no one would dream of attacking. And that was what they considered their greatest achievement.
All those present more or less already knew what each councillor would say: they had heard the same reports all their lives. And so had their predecessors for hundreds of years as far as they knew.
When the last man to speak, the science councillor, had delivered his share of good news, the emperor stood and kissed him on the forehead, as the ceremonial prescribed.
“Babylon thanks you all”.
He then made a sign and three clerks that had been standing along the far wall of the room approached, their arms filled with maps that they laid upon the table.
“ As the science councillor told us, we now have found use for that black material he calls coal and our engineers have already started laying down those “rails”. It will let us increase productivity in our mines and travel faster than we ever have, from one end of the empire to the other.”
The clerks had laid down the maps, three identical copies, so that everyone could see them.
“ Now, we all know that our civilisation has no equal on this earth. On our continent remain the Chinese, the English, the Indians and the Aztecs in addition to us” the emperor said while pointing at each of the tiny pockets of non-Babylonian space on the continent. None of these foreign powers had more than three cities.
“On the other side of the earth, the Iroquois and the Americans are still engaged in a battle to the finish for their small island. They have not known peace in my lifetime and I doubt they will anytime soon.”
Nabak gestured to his visitors to sit down as he started pacing the room.
“One day, Babylon will rule this earth. We have already proven that our way of life could bring happiness to all our citizens and every other country on this continent has seen at least one city overthrow their government to join our civilisation.”
The emperor walked to a large window overlooking the palace’s gardens.
“I know… I think we all know that it is only a matter of time until we rule the whole continent and, indeed, the earth.”
Nabak turned back to face the grand Council. And in that instant, Arrhus knew what the emperor was going to say.
“I have decided not to wait.”
*****end of part one****
He could see the fires raging through the city and the surrounding fields. Small groups of people roamed the once fertile valley like packs of wolves, attacking smaller groups and steering away from larger ones. And he knew that the same was happening all over the empire. All over the world in fact, as he had been told just the day before, when Babylon remained the only island of sanity in a world gone mad.
He remembered that there was a small river at the bottom of the hill, to the east. That’s as far as his weakened body would take him but he needed water.
He crawled at first, but got on his feet and could almost manage to run when he felt confident that the dense woods and thick underbrush would stealth his approach. Coming up to the riverbank he didn’t see anyone. As he fell to his knees and immersed his head in the water, he did not hear the man sneaking behind him. As soon as he came back up he felt a warm sensation on the front of his neck as the knife sliced his throat. He tried to turn to face his nemesis but fell backward in the river. His body had just given up.
He never saw the face of his killer; he could only see shapes and shadows. And he felt at peace there, finally, the river taking him downstream, away from Babylon. As he started to drift away, he dreamed of a time filled with happiness. Just a month ago.. a life away.
****************************
It was Arrhus’ first time in the Palace, his first appearance at the Grand Council of Babylon. The room where the Council gathered was relatively small, in the middle of this gigantic palace. He stood at the end of the large white marble slab that formed the top of the table. He had never seen marble so pure, marked only by a few dark green veins. And in the middle of it was the famous “Eye of the Emperor”.
" A strange rock formation, that's all it is." he thought. But he could clearly see an eye shape, formed by a large vein of dark grey marble against the white of the slab, that seemed to separate in two smaller veins and then came back together to form a single vein about half an arms length further. But what made this so beautiful was the blue sapphire that was embedded between the two veins, a perfect iris to this eye.
Nabak, the emperor, was standing at his side.
“I heard a lot of good things about you, general Arrhus” Nabak said, “that tactic that you used against the red team was very innovative I’ve been told”
“To be honest, Your Majesty, I stole that from Hannibal. I was just lucky the Captain of the reds had not read he same books I have.”
The Emperor smiled. All around them, the other generals, admirals and various councillors to the throne were talking among themselves, acting as though they weren’t watching their leader and his newest General. Arrhus knew better. Politics was as much a part of the military career as discipline and patience. He would not be there if he did not possess all of those.
Nabak came closer and spoke in a soft voice.
“ You had the wit to learn from your lectures and to apply what you had learned to modern combat general, just like you have the good sense not to let yourself be impressed by this rock” he said, pointing to the “Eye”. “Thousands of people still think that I can see the future in it.”
The emperor started to walk away from him, raising his voice so that every one present in the room would hear him.
“That’s why you are here. You have proven, you have all proven that you can think on your feet, that you can adapt quickly to new situations. Babylon will need these abilities in the near future” The emperor turned to the crowd.
“Come forward, let’s begin this Grand Council!”
Everyone sat at the place that had been assigned to him by the person responsible for the ceremonial. The Grand Council was as much a tradition as the instrument by which the emperor decided the future of the empire. The ceremonial prescribed the order in which the councillors would present their State of the Empire report, and so they began.
The councillors delivered their reports, all of them stating the wealth and the power of the mighty empire. It simply had no equal on the face of this earth. The trades with the other civilisations, the scientific level that they had attained, their commercial weight and the size of their population and territory was unequalled.
And all that had been gained without waging a single war in the last 1600 years. Few Babylonians knew or would have believed that their ancestors had crushed the young Roman and French civilisations centuries ago. Most would have doubted even a scholar if he had told such a tale.
As far as they knew, their grandeur came from their commercial abilities. And they liked it that way.
And so their army, although it was certainly the best equipped and most powerful ever, was reduced to waging imaginary wars, the Blue team against the Red, constantly training to defend a country that no one would dream of attacking. And that was what they considered their greatest achievement.
All those present more or less already knew what each councillor would say: they had heard the same reports all their lives. And so had their predecessors for hundreds of years as far as they knew.
When the last man to speak, the science councillor, had delivered his share of good news, the emperor stood and kissed him on the forehead, as the ceremonial prescribed.
“Babylon thanks you all”.
He then made a sign and three clerks that had been standing along the far wall of the room approached, their arms filled with maps that they laid upon the table.
“ As the science councillor told us, we now have found use for that black material he calls coal and our engineers have already started laying down those “rails”. It will let us increase productivity in our mines and travel faster than we ever have, from one end of the empire to the other.”
The clerks had laid down the maps, three identical copies, so that everyone could see them.
“ Now, we all know that our civilisation has no equal on this earth. On our continent remain the Chinese, the English, the Indians and the Aztecs in addition to us” the emperor said while pointing at each of the tiny pockets of non-Babylonian space on the continent. None of these foreign powers had more than three cities.
“On the other side of the earth, the Iroquois and the Americans are still engaged in a battle to the finish for their small island. They have not known peace in my lifetime and I doubt they will anytime soon.”
Nabak gestured to his visitors to sit down as he started pacing the room.
“One day, Babylon will rule this earth. We have already proven that our way of life could bring happiness to all our citizens and every other country on this continent has seen at least one city overthrow their government to join our civilisation.”
The emperor walked to a large window overlooking the palace’s gardens.
“I know… I think we all know that it is only a matter of time until we rule the whole continent and, indeed, the earth.”
Nabak turned back to face the grand Council. And in that instant, Arrhus knew what the emperor was going to say.
“I have decided not to wait.”
*****end of part one****
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