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A.R.Yngve DARC AGES _________________________ |
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Chapter 6 (continued)
Darc's English Diary, June (Iunna) 23rd, 2897 AD (940 Aw Monro): I must continue writing down my translation of Al-Masur... After the Steel Age came the Golden Age -- my time, the 20th century, as these people see it. Al-Masur pours it on thick: "It was a time of constant change, of every day offering fantastic new discoveries -- but no one loved it. It was a time of great depravity, of all imaginable excesses -- but no one admitted (sic!). Mankind fought, ate, multiplied, conquered galaxies (sic!). Billions of humans packed together on the Earth, the Moon, and Mars. From pole to pole, humans dug up all available resources to feed the robots which fed mankind. The robots began to grow intelligent, and once nearly threatened to exterminate mankind under the robot prophets Tee-1 and Tee-2 (sic!). "But they perished, for this was also the age of The Coming of the Goddess and the Singing King. Praise Monro, the first human incarnation of the All-Mother! Hail Vis, the first one to be possessed by the Divine Song! For it is written: Monro is the Goddess in our time. She appeared to the entire world in one instant, a million images of the One. For it is written: The King is alive, and was seen walking the earth outside the common man's home. He is all men, young man and old fat man at once. And he too showed himself to the entire world, alive to the night!" (No comment. If I think too much about this, I go crazy. I haven't gathered the courage to visit their church services yet -- what if I laugh out loud, will they call me a heretic and burn me at the stake?) But from here on it gets real scary. Al-Masur's account of what happened in the first centuries after I was frozen, is confusing: "The Golden Age was blessed by the Goddess and the Singing King. Their first incarnations walked the earth and went away. And in their absence, the people grew comfortable and decadent. They ridiculed the King, and turned to false gods such as Koban-Jem the Singer Of Death. They desecrated the temples of the Goddess with filthy images of perversion and murder. And they forgot the Divine Words of Love, for the lure of Setan-Klaws. Setan-Klaws the red, bearded demon of greed, who sneaked into houses at night and poisoned the childrens' minds with a limitless lust after dead things. "The children of Koban-Jem and Setan-Klaws ruled the cities like wolves, preying upon the innocent and waging war among themselves. They became creatures with neither faith nor compassion. Forever damned were they, and the wrath of the Goddess was merciless. She shook the Earth in its orbit, and let the Eternal Ice upon the world. The Ice slowly crushed the cities and froze millions to death. In one century, the Eternal Ice had covered nearly half of the world and made the oceans sink down." (It seems from the climate now -- dry and not very warm, even here in North Castilia -- that this Ice Age is still very much active. But what caused the planet's axis to tilt and started the change in the climate? Al-Masur offers no scientific explanation.) "Billions of people fled toward the equator to escape the cold. The world's tribes crowded and fought for the decreasing food supplies, and the mighty robots were unable to stop the advancing ice. Many people starved to death, and the remaining ones turned mad with hunger and desperation..." I'm crying again. Thank God that the kids were gone long before this happened. I can't continue now. I miss my ex-wife. Maggie, if only you could have joined me in the freeze! Darc's English Diary, June (Iunna) 24th, 2897 AD (940 Aw Monro): It's no pleasure, but for some reason I force myself to translate Al-Masur -- it's more real to me when I read it in my own language. "The First Great War occurred somewhere between 150 or 200 After Monro. Two or three billion people perished. The cities of the North and South attacked the cities of the Equator, and retaliation struck swift and massive. Many died when the war-robots were sent through space and fired nuclear heat upon the cities. But despite huge losses, there was still not enough food and room. "And the Second Great War came, somewhere between 220 and 270 After Monro. This time there were no more nuclear robots, so the city lords unleashed the plague known as Pseudo-Leprosy upon each other. Woe and curse the evil ones who let the Plague upon us! Their crime is unforgivable, for it killed many more people than the Third War and condemned countless millions to a fate worse than death. "Only a minority of mankind managed to hide underground, until the Plague had come to rest. When they returned to the surface, they built the fortified cities which stand to this day. The Lepers who survived the Plague were doomed to wander the earthly wastelands forever, carrying the Plague as a reminder and warning of human folly. For it is written: Praise the Goddess who spared her faithful ones, and pray for the return of the King!" It's a bloody shame, that's what it is. I feel guilty somehow for having escaped the whole mess -- stupid, I know, but there it is. I was dumb lucky, that's all. Left forgotten for 900 years. With a little less luck, they could have thawed me up just 200 years after 1999 and BOOM! I've got a human maid now, but that pesky robot Lachtfot still follows me around the castle like a watchdog. As soon as I get him out of the way, I'll try to get to know the maid better. She's a bit older than me and a bit scared of me too, but I don't care. This solitude is more than I can take. Darc's English Diary, June (Iunna) 25th, 2897 AD (940 Aw Monro): Tomorrow they'll finally let me out of this castle! Bor has invited me to attend the Summer Joust, which occurs every June in connection with the Summer Festival. It's a bit late in the month, but the weather isn't quite what it used to be in my own time. There is much expectation in the air -- word has it that Bor's champion, his own son Dohan, is a sure winner this year too. Everyone is cheerful (except Andon Pasko), every room's been decorated with flowers and green garlands. Someone's even stuck a flower onto the head of Lachtfot -- suits him right. I was surprised to learn that there are actually knights in shining armor in this age -- their armor has to shine very bright, to deflect laser-beams. Each knight has a crew of pages, who do nothing but polish armor all day. The feudal lords, such as Bor Damon, are sworn to protect their city-states against attacking enemies -- that's why they have knights. What enemies? The city-states are heavily fortified, with laser cannons posted all around the outer walls. The cities are placed 50-100 kilometers away from one another, and quite self-sufficient despite the alliances between them -- with the empty wastelands surrounding the cities, what is there to fight? "Al-Masur" hints that the cities were isolated to shut out the Lepers -- survivors of the artificial plague that almost wiped out mankind 500 years ago. Just once I tried to ask Librian about the "Lepers" -- had he ever seen one, or even a picture of one? He got too scared to answer, so I'll avoid that taboo until I'm sure it won't get me into trouble. And speaking of armor and robots, now I understand why these people use technology in such limited ways. A telling example: Early this morning, the servant robot Vhustank broke down. Bor sent for a couple of craftsmen to repair him. Five specialized mechanics came to the castle, armed with an arsenal of instruments and carts loaded with old reference manuals. They put on dust-protective coats, and placed the broken machine in a dust-free, inflatable tent. While two of them tinkered inside the tent, they handed little notes with queries to the remaining three technicians. The three men outside read the notes, and leafed through several thick volumes to find an explanation. When they had looked up a possible reference, they copied it onto a small hand-written form which they passed into the tent. After many hours of consulting and checking -- I didn't stay around all day -- the specialists found the source of the malfunction and sent for the correct spare part. The robots' delicate spare parts are manufactured by a special guild of craftsmen, who work in small, specialized workshops -- the spare part happened to be in stock, but it had taken about one year to put it together correctly!! Finally, they had Vhustank up and running. "A record short time," the specialists boasted. "Once we had to go over a robot for seven months before we found the fault." I asked them, "Why can't you just build spare robots, and let them replace the broken robot while you work on it?" The five mechanics stared at me like I was crazy -- then they laughed, thinking it was a joke. Young Awonso explained it to me: each single robot is the product of three cooperating guilds, and takes about ten years to build -- they are often inherited within the family, and Vhustank goes back at least two generations. Small wonder then, that only the nobility can afford robots! And there's more: it seems that all knowledge they have of technology is inherited too. The robots, the aircraft, the fusion power -- everything fragments of a glorious past, painstakingly copied and passed on from the time when people cared to invent new things. No factories -- no scientists -- no change. These are the new Dark Ages. (I hope the maid won't return to my room tonight. I'm too tired.) |
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