A Village On Zergie feature - Literature Club "Infinity"

A village on Zargie

Dedicated to my friend Count Bagatur (Alex), I hope you like it.

The planet of Zargie was much like Earth, (likely because it had recently been Tera-formed by an Earth Colony Seeding ship,) With the planet newly settled, but resources scarce, small test communities where created in order to decide what style of society and government would be most effective,

Arthor Chade lived in one such community, known as the Blue Village, their society was a strange one, there was no law as such only 'The Reports System' if the ruling council received over 25 complaints regarding an adult individual, that person was "Removed", there was an understanding which went along with the system, that no more than two complaints should be counted for the same event. Arthor had just received 25 complaints and was due to meet with the mayre in order to discuss his future at the village. Arthor was confident however that he wouldn't need to be "Removed" as, like most people, he knew about 'the understanding', almost all of his complaints (23 of them to be exact) where related to just one event, an attempt to create a pyrotechnic display for the Mayre's cousin Elda on her 47th birthday, the display had gone terribly wrong, setting fire to the surrounding buildings and leaving a number of the villagers temporarily homeless, the Mayre was highly embarrassed by the incident and hadn't spoken to him since, Arthor hoped he wouldn't hold it against him when the decision came.

-- --

Arthor entered the Mayre's office, the whirling sound of the P.E (Pulse-Engine (a form of advanced computer)) filled the room

The Mayre was comunicating with 'Command' the low mechanical voice of Fleet Commander Haloce rung out, talking as usual in

some old incomprehensible dialect which the Mayre seemed to speek and understand perfectly, the transmission ended and the Mayre stepped away from the P.E turning to Arthor "Weell Athor mi lad, your in deep toruble this time, looks like your guna be 'Removed'" he rumbled gleefully,
Arthor laughed nervously assuming the Mayre was Joking, "Oh no mi lad, I'm serious" Mayre grunted "we can't be having people causing havoc like what you did and gettin of scot free", "A lot of us wanted to make an example of you after ya ruined all them peoples houses, so we decided to wave 'the Understanding' in your case, trouble is Command was pretty stern on the subject, they says it must apply to all or none, we can't just pick out certain people who we're angry with, and have them 'removed' when no one else would be, to cut a long story short Arthor mi lad, we've decided 'the Understanding' won't be enforced any longer, ya see your the only person who's had more than 10 complaints in the past three years, now since you've been informed properly are decision takes effect, immediately!!". Arthor stood there stunned, a bead of sweat dripping down his brow, the Mayre removed his bracelet and placed it into a socket on the wall. Beside the socket a roughly diamond shaped machine, made of black metal, which hung still against the walls surface began to shudder and come into life, "This is the selector, it takes care of the 'Removal' process for us" he explained, now just stand still and this will all be over soon.

Arthor stood perfectly still as the selector approached, there must be a way out of this, he thought to himself, and then at the last moment a cunning thought struck him, he dived out of the Selector's way and turned to the Mayre's aid, "how many complaints did the Mayre recieve today", the aid looked at his portable computer screen "the Mayre has received a total of 19 complaints

against himself today, all relating to his recently exposed 'Spore' addiction", "added to the mayors current total, under the new rules this would make a count of 29 complaints against the Mayre himself effective from one moment ago the Mayre is a valid target for the selector,

I'm sorry mister Mayre but can't call it off and 'Control' made the terms clear, if you suspended 'the Understanding' you would have to wait for at least three months before you could put things back as they were"

The selector was unnervingly silent, it hung in the middle of the room as if it was making a decision, Arthor and the Mayre stared at each-other momentarily and then both bolted for the window, they would have to run for it, the Selector probably wouldn't leave the village if they could out run it, As their speed increased a red light began to shine from the Selectors casing and it lifted up further from the ground turning onto it's back, it's speed increased and a loud rumbling could be heard throughout the village "The woods you fool" the Mayre shouted to Arthor, the two ran into the dense foliage, this way Mayre screemed, bolting down into a crevace in the ground, Arthor followed and the two squeezed through an open trapdoor, hurredly closing it behind them.

-- --

"Are you sure it can't get us down here" Arthor gabbled, his hands trembling, the Mayre's face was red and his breathing was erratic, he hadn't needed to run in ten years, "I've never seen it come past the trees," he spluttered "and besides, even if it can follow us, it shouldn't be able to see us down here, you see I, ...." The Mayre trailed off abruptly. Arther's eyes had now become accustomed to the darkness, all around him the floor was littered with bags of white and pink powder, "What is this!, these look.. like bags of 'Spore', how can you possibly need so much?" "Ya see, mi boy ", Mayre trailed off again for a moment before finally seeming to regain his confidence, "Where do ya think half our food comes form, our population's over doubled in the last ten years, we have to buy it in from the other villages, this stuff is all that most of them seem to want" Arthor was shocked, he'd always been told that the other villages where hostile, "What reason could you have to lie about it?", the Mayre backed into the corner and seemed to shrivel slightly, "when I becum Mayre I had to do something, the last man who had my job told me before he died, that we had to look successfull in order to retain support from 'Control', if we was considered a failed colony we might not be protected if anything bad happened", "I had to make us look self-sufficient", Arthor was stunned, the village records stated clearly that the Mayre was the same man who founded the Blue Village, "how did you replace the Mayre?" he asked calmly, the Mayre shuddered, "You see mi boy, the Mayor was killed, I'm not the Mayor, I was chose because I spoked the old dialect and My name was Theo Mayre, you see sum people believed that 'Control' would know if we replaced the mayor, they seemed to know if and when someone's lying, but we realised the Mayor alwase calld me The' - Mayre, The Mayre, the way he spoke it sounds the same, so when 'Control' asks is the mayor ok, we replied The' Mayre's in good health, they even made me look like him, you see overdosing on spore makes you look old"

--

The two sat in the Cave talking for a few more hours eventually they decided on a plan, they would travel to The township of Violet, where they were the most liklely to be safe from the selector, 'Control' had no influence in Violet's affairs, in fact from what Mayre had explained to Arthor, 'Control' were afraid on something or someone there....

To be continued....................