<pwinram@coastnet.com>


Claire de Lune

Enter Star Navigators
Chapter Six
A Dream of Darkness

        In the dungeons below the Hall of Chaos, Colg was interrogating his
prisoner.  "So that's your whole dream?  He asked her with an edge to his
voice, "You're sure?  Because if it isn't, I'll know, and you'll pay a high
price for your disobedience."
        The girl quivered in fear.  "Yes, that's all, I swear it!"
        "Alright then, you'll be fed today."  Colg walked off.  "Lord Anord," he
reported, "all this one seems to know is the final battle, and I can't seem
to trigger any other memories in her.  I intend, therefore, to keep her
around for a bit, but I will seek out more with the memories."
        "Proceed then, Colg," lord Anord told him, "but don't take them all from
one place, or people may become suspicious, and we're not yet ready for any
overt offensive moves."
        "Yes, my Lord." affirmed Colg.  He returned to his laboratory and activated
his dream crystal.  There was no immediate reaction, so he sat and munched
on pickled herring while he waited.

        Finally the crystal started to hum and opened a warphole.  On the other
side of the warphole in California, a sixteen year old boy was dreaming
about chasing a girl around a flower garden.  The dream abruptly stopped as
Colg appeared above him.  Once again, Colg captured and implanted his
victim, then deposited him in the cage.  Immediately, the boy woke up.
        "Who are you?  Where am I?" he demanded.
        Colg just laughed.  "Insolent whelp." he said, "You will not get any
answers to your questions until I choose to tell you!  Now, what were you
dreaming?"
        "Just a dream."said the boy.
        "Tell it to me, boy, or you might be very upset about the consequences!"
said Colg, materializing his black crystal sword
        "Alright, alright," said the boy, "it's not all that exciting anyway.  I'm
in a gigantic rose garden and I'm chasing this girl around trying to catch
her.  I think I'm about ten years old.  It's sunny, but not too warm.  In
fact, there isn't a cloud in the sky.  Finally, we both get tired of
running, and sit down among the flowers to watch the moon rise, except the
earth rises instead.  Typical weird dream.  So will you let me go home now?"
        "Go home?  Are you trying to be funny?  You're not going anywhere until you
provide me with a better dream.  I'll know when you have one, and I will
know if you lie when you tell it to me, so don't try to pull anything on
me."  And with that he left.
        "Arrgh!" he growled when he was back in his laboratory, " What's with this?
I find two young, vulnerable victims, and both their dreams are worthless!
Lord Anord isn't going to like this.  I must try to find another dreamer.
Maybe the third time will be lucky, as these pathetic humans say."  Just
then, the crystal began to glow again.  "Well well, what have we here?" said
Colg with an evil grin on his face, "I guess the crystal has decided to
cooperate with my wishes.  That luck speaks well of my chances of success
this time!"

        Inside the dream, a young man was walking despondently down a beautiful
corridor in a castle.  He was surrounded by gorgeous tapestries and lit by
multitudinous colours from the sun shining through the intricate stained
glass windows, but he didn't seem to notice any of this.  'I am so bored' he
thought to himself, 'all this peace and contentment may have been alright at
first, but now I'm stagnating from lack of incentive to act.'  As he
continued to walk down the corridor deep in thought, he literally bumped
into one of the army commanders.  "I'm so sorry sir!"  I wasn't watching
where I was going, Please accept my sincere apologies." he said.
        "That's alright." said the commander, "I sense you are bored with the
present state of affairs here in the Moon Kingdom, young man."
        "No, Sir, not at all!" he lied.
        "No need to dissemble , my young friend, I too share your sentiment, and
can introduce you to others.  Please, call me Commander Mallaith."
        "Really, Si... Commander?" he asked, finally interested in something.
        "Really, now tell me, what is your name?" asked Commander Mallaith.
        "Bayatekt." he introduced himself, "Now what were yo saying about others
who share our sentiments?"
        "This is neither the time or the place for that, Bayatekt.  I'll be in
touch with you." and with this, Commander Mallaith walked on down the hall.
Bayatekt continued in the direction he had been walking, but now his mind
was spinning with opportunities.

        Colg exited the warphole in Britain and, unlike the other instances, the
young man of twenty-three didn't stop dreaming and wake up.  As he looked at
his latest victim, Colg felt a strange sense of recognition, but shrugged it
off.  After all, they had both come from the same place, as evidenced by his
dreams, so it was not all that surprising that he seemed familiar.  The
victim continued to dream all through the implantation process.  He actually
had to be woken after he was put in his cell, so that Colg could question him.
        "Tell me the dream you were having." said Colg once the young man was
finally awake.
        Being surprisingly compliant he said "Sure," and proceeded to relate the
dream in great detail.  "So after that, I went back to my room and waited
for the commander to call me, and that's when you woke me up."he explained.
        Colg was elated.  Finally he had found someone with useful memories.
Someone who, it seemed, was even part of their conspiracy.  "You wait
there." he said, "I may release you when I get back."  Colg appeared in the
throne room.  "Good news, Lord Anord!" he said, "I have found a human with
useful memories.  In fact, he seems to be one of us!"
        "Well, this seems interesting, Colg." mused Lord Anord, "what exactly does
he remember?"  Colg explained the dream, and Lord Anord became even more
interested.  "Bring him in here, Colg, and I'll see if I can trigger his
memory of the chaos conspiracy."
        "Colg went back to the prison.  "Well Bayatekt, it seems you've sparked the
interest of Lord Anord.  You have been invited to the throne room."
        "Why did you call me that?" demanded Bayatekt, "That's not my name!"
        "But it is." stated Colg, "You'll understand soon."
        Colg took both of them to the throne room.  "Kneel!" he hissed at Bayatekt,
who quickly obeyed.
        "So," said Lord Anord, "Commander Colg here tells me you have dreamed about
the Moon Kingdom."
        "It's just an odd and silly dream my Lord." said the kneeling Bayatekt.
        "I will be the judge of that!" said Lord Anord, "listen, that you might
know the truth."  An with that, he began the story of the Chaos Conspiracy.
"One thousand years ago was a time called the 'Silver Millennium'.  During
this time, the seat of power in this solar system was the moon.  It was a
time of peace and prosperity and, consequently, utter boredom for the agents
of chaos.  Prior to this time, great wars had raged between the planets,
killing many.  Unfortunately, the leaders of the various planets finally saw
that if the wars were allowed to continue, they would wipe out their
civilization entirely.  I say 'unfortunately' because those wars had been
begun by the agents of chaos with just that purpose.  Civilization was
getting to advanced too quickly for our liking, and we had to step in and do
something.  The Silver Millennium which followed these wars was, as I have
said, a time of peace and prosperity.  At first, we believed that it would
only be a temporary thing, a short breathing space between the wars,; but as
it went on longer and longer, we realized that the very wars we had created
had blown up in our faces.  Instead of fostering distrust and hatred, the
humans, with their annoying capacity for forgiveness, had turned them into a
rallying point for peace.  Something had to be done.  We immediately
realized, of course, that starting all out war again just wouldn't work.
The humans were too aware of the consequences of such wars.  Instead, we
resolved to stir dissention from within the Moon Kingdom itself.  'Surely,'
we thought, 'not everyone is entirely happy in their present situation'.
And we were right, of course, there were those who were bored with the state
of things, and would do almost anything just to get a little variety.
Through patience and persistence I insinuated myself into the high council,
and from there I was able to place many of my underlings in positions of
power.  Eventually we came upon the perfect instrument through whom we could
destroy all traces of the civilization of peace and happiness centred around
the moon.  On earth there was a young, vain woman, a minor Lady, who had
been snubbed one too many times by the Peerage there.  They had good reason,
of course; in addition to being vain and giving herself airs, she was also
stubborn and snobbish.  But she also had a temper to match her red hair, and
when they wouldn't accept her, she swore revenge against them, and anyone
else who snubbed her ever again.  I quickly sent one of my most powerful
minions to subvert her and teach her what she would need to destroy the Moon
Kingdom.  It was surprisingly easy.  First he convinced her that anyone in
power over her had snubbed her, and that if she took power for herself,
people would have to respect her.  Then he began steering her learning down
the long-forgotten path which led to the entrance to the negative plane of
existence called the Negaverse; the place where Chaos exists.  Eventually
she took the title of Queen Beryl, and dubbed herself ruler of the
Negaverse.  She was by this time convinced that the power and position of
Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom should by rights be hers, so she began
recruiting in earnest on her home planet, where dissention was already
brewing, using mind-submerging spells so she had hordes of fanatically loyal
dissidents who would do anything at her bidding.  We provided her with
information, and eventually she sprang a surprise attack on the moon.  The
attack was hugely successful.  The society and civilization of the moon were
destroyed, and with its one binding government gone, the Silver Millennium
would surely collapse.  Everything would have been perfect, had it not been
for Queen Serenity and her accursed Empyrium Silver Crystal.  She saw all
the death and destruction around her and sacrificed her own life and any
chance of being reborn by combining her life force with the power of the
Crystal to send there spirits of all those who were there forward to be
reborn with no memories of their former lives, but the ability to recover
the memories if necessary.  Because of this interference, all remnants of
the Moon civilization were not lost, and we were not able to prevent them
from resurfacing because we were also trapped by the Crystal's enchantment."
        Throughout the whole tale, Bayatekt had been kneeling silently, nodding and
taking in information which was opening doors, one by one, in his mind.
"Yes, my lord, now I remember, I was recruited into your efforts, and
attained the rank of sub-lieutenant,"
        "Well then, Sub-lieutenant Bayatekt, your assignment for now is to write
down any visions or dreams you may have of the Moon Kingdom, no matter how
insignificant they may sem.  Now Colg, give him a room acceptable to his
rank, then go back to your own assignment.  I am well pleased with your
achievement, but I need not remind you that there are still many things we
don't remember or can't understand, and it is vital that we know as much as
we can in order to find the fatal error which caused such a good plan to
fail.  Now go."
        "Yes, Lord Anord." they both said.
        Colg took Bayatekt to a small suite of sparsely furnished rooms.  "This
will be your place." explained Colg, "Do you remember how to create a
warphole for transportation?"  Bayatekt demonstrated this power.  "Good.
You should be able to find your way to the mess hall, now I have work to do."
        Colg exited through his own warphole, and Bayatekt sat down on one of the
austere chairs in his bedroom to ponder the strange events which had
happened to him.  Eventually he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, bone
tired from lack of sleep coupled with the exhaustion brought on by having
his memory triggered.

        Colg was staring at the girl he had captured first with his dream crystal.
In all the time she had been here, she had not dreamed one useful dream.
        " I wonder if I could trigger dreams by bringing the boy into the cage.
Maybe they might set each other off." he mused.  He went to get the boy from
California, and he moved him into the cage with the German girl.  They were
both still asleep, so he created a viewer, then returned to his lab to watch
in comfort.

        In the throne room, Lord Anord was speaking to a man in the shadows near
his throne. "So, do you remember him, Mallaith?  Is he truly what he says?"
        "He is." said Mallaith, " I remember him well.  He earned his rank through
cruelty and cunning.  He would have gone far had it not been for the
interference of that cursed Queen Serenity."
        "Have you anything to report from your latest reconnaissance mission?  Are
there any things these humans are doing which we might exploit?"
        "Many things, my Lord.  The humans in this time have mostly forgotten magic
except in stories no one believes, and have put all their faith in
technology, which easily breaks down.  In addition, they are no longer a
cohesive unit.  There are hundreds of different countries, and even within
those countries the factions can't seem to agree on which way to go on any
particular issue."
        "That could prove very useful.  What else have you learned?"
        "I have also learned that the humans have been through two large-scale
wars, and they have, in that process, harnessed the power of atomic fission."
        "Better and better.  Thank you Captain Mallaith, your information will be
most helpful.  Since they have been through two large wars, and not a third
or fourth, they must have set up some kind of rudimentary governing body,
which would suggest that instigating mass war probably won't work.  I think
we would be better off to stir things up for a bit and watch what rises to
the surface.  Once we have gathered the necessary amounts of energy, I will
release the agents of chaos among the humans.  Continue your reconnaissance,
Mallaith, and report back to me anything which might aid our cause."  Lord
Anord dismissed Mallaith with a wave of his hand, and the Captain
disappeared.  Lord Anord continued to ponder what his plan of action should
be.  This time, he resolved, he would demoralize the humans so soundly that
they would never rise to their feet again.

FIN

