Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4) Read online

  While the beings may have been confined to a section of their world, in another sense they were free. Even freer than the beings of Magnificence’s own home world, where one had to be careful while practicing the ‘Truth’ lest the secret leaked to the rest of the world.

  The beings were happy and satisfied. They knew that they were secure as long as the Ka-Baal had control of the world. If the Ka-Baal were ever to be defeated and lost control over the world however, then the fortune of the beings would take a turn for the worse. If beings from the rest of the worlds, who followed the old religion were ever to reconquer World #12, then they would discover the religious practice of this small group of survivors, who practiced it in the open.

  In an irony of sorts, the interests of these small group of survivors and followers of the ‘Truth’ on World #12 became aligned with those of their conquerors the Ka-Baal, and opposed to those of the rest of their beings across the other worlds. This cozy arrangement stayed a secret from the rest of the beings including the world of Magnificence.

  Then a few hundred cycles later, their conquerors, the Ka-Baal made a demand of these beings on World #12. It was not an unreasonable demand. Given the kind of good treatment the Ka-Baal had given these beings, what the Ka-Baal were asking for was very little, almost nothing. The beings were at the mercy of their conquerors, and hardly in a position to refuse either. Yet the beings were hesitant in acquiescing to this particular demand of the Ka-Baal.

  The reason for the hesitation was because of the terrible risk carried by what the Ka-Baal were asking them to do. The risk was not for the beings themselves, who were secure behind the military might of the Ka-Baal, but the risk was to this world, the world of Magnificence, and to the future of their religion of the ‘Truth’ as practiced in this World #6.

  In the end, the beings weighed the pros and cons and agreed to the demand. Their reasoning was that the risk of their own actions was small. The entire risk would be borne by the council of seers of World #6, depending on the decisions the council took; the captured beings on World #12 were only messengers. The message of the beings of World #12 would probably open up options for their new religion, possibly even enabling them to practice their faith in the open.

  It was this message of the beings of World #12, that the current session of the council of seers had gathered to discuss. The council was waiting for a few of the seers who were yet to make it to the chamber. Some of them were physically travelling from their nests situated on the other end of the world for this emergency session. It was understandable that a few would be delayed.

  While Taste of Magnificence waited, he reviewed the beings already present in the chamber. It was a good thing that their tasting stations were not transmitting anything yet, otherwise Magnificence would probably have been overwhelmed with a myriad of emotions. As it is, the chamber was a riot of odors. Odors of fear, anxiety, hope, and even excitement. The fact that even seasoned seers in the chamber could not hold down their emotional odor, indicated the strength of their feelings.

  Taste of Magnificence may have been the senior most seer in the council, but he was not conducting this session. He was glad for that fact. Magnificence needed all his concentration for what would be the most important decision of his life, that of this council, and also of this world. When the council finally went into session, the conductor of the session recognized Magnificence’s right to address first.

  “At my request the session is being conducted in a one way address mode to begin with. I know each and every one of us has opinions and apprehensions they would like to express, and I have many of my own. However it is extremely important that we make sure that every seer in this council has the same understanding of the situation, and our options. Only then can we discuss the merits and demerits of every option.

  To that effect I had tasked seer Taste of Remembrance to succinctly and unambiguously interpret the message for this council. In addition I have also asked seer Remembrance to list out all the options available to us. I consider seer Remembrance as one of the best analytical minds in this council, and would urge all of us to pay good attention to his summarization, before we debate options.” Magnificence made his opening address and then yielded the control back to the conductor of the session, who promptly transferred it to seer Taste of Remembrance.

  “As the members of this council are aware, about half a cycle ago, our World received an unexpected encoded message from World #12. The message was encoded such that it could be opened only by the council of seers of this world. The message was signed by the personal odor and taste signature of the only seer left on that world, and the only seer who was part of the secret cult of the ‘Truth’ on world #12.

  “Needless to say, the curious caste have poured in all their resources since then to verify the authenticity of the message, and they have found no reason to believe in the least that this message was not sent by the being who claims to have sent it. We have records of the taste and odor signature of this being that exist in our records, and we have been able to validate it. It is not impossible for the Ka-Baal to have forged the signature, but it is improbable.

  “The most convincing proof of its authenticity however, is the fact that the message is preceded by the ‘questions’ of our secret ritual, followed by the correct answers. These are not even known to the rest of our beings, who do not follow the ‘Truth’ of the Prophet, and they have not ever been documented. Hence it is extremely unlikely that the Ka-Baal could have chanced upon them and forged them.

  “Since our beings have long ago genetically engineered and bred out the pain receptors in our bodies, which make us vulnerable to torture or make us fearful of injury, it is unlikely that this message was sent by our beings under duress.

  “However we know that the Ka-Baal have the capability of stealing the mind of our sentient being and making them do things against their will. We have considered that possibility. From whatever descriptions had been sent to us by the World #12 before their final defeat, we understand that they cannot take away the will of the main brain, but can detach it from the rest of the motor functions of our body.

  “This capability can only turn the affected being into a zombie, but not force them to compose the kind of message that has been sent. Hence the curious caste who analyzed the message think it is extremely unlikely that this message was composed by a being against its will. All in all, the curious caste can say with greater than 63 out of 64 confidence that this message is genuine.

  “With the question of authenticity of the message out of the way, I will address the content of the message.” Remembrance paused for a fraction of an instant to switch the data on his tasting station, and bring up the relevant data he wanted to elucidate. It was too small a pause for any human to have noticed but for a Shaitan it was like a pause before changing topic.

  “The message as the seers of this council are aware is in two parts. The first part is composed by our beings, which consist of the recitation of the holy rituals of the ‘Truth’ to establish their credentials, followed by a general description of what had happened after the defeat of our beings by the Ka-Baal on World #12. If we don’t doubt the authenticity of the message, which as I previously mentioned we shouldn’t, then the beings are being treated extremely well by the Ka-Baal, and are not just surviving, but thriving. They have spawned a few batches of younglings in these intervening few hundred cycles and have even multiplied their numbers!

  “It seems that the words of the Prophet are coming true to the last detail, which comes as no surprise to any believer of the ‘Truth’. I am sure this council will have detailed metaphysical debate on this matter, and what the emergence of the Ka-Baal signifies for our new religion. For the moment I will skip that portion of the message by just mentioning that the first part of the message composed by our beings brings a new hope for us the believer of the ‘Truth’.

  “The second part of the message has been composed by the Ka-Baal themselves. Other than m
arveling at the mastery that the Ka-Baal have been able achieve in our Holy language, the curious caste has been able to ascertain by the minor mistakes in syntax and grammar that it was unlikely to have been composed by any of our beings. In any case there is no reason to doubt that this part of the message has been sent by the Ka-Baal, when the message itself says so.

  “The message has been signed by a body of the Ka-Baal which is unpronounceable in our Holy Language but roughly translates into ‘United Void Council’. The best guess of the curious caste is that this body is the equivalent of our ‘Grand Council of Seers’. Obvious it must be the highest body governing the Ka-Baal. The curious fact about this nomenclature of their governing body is the word ‘United’.

  “Since the Ka-Baal have only one world, why would they need a ‘united’ body, which by name implies a confederation of many worlds?! It is not as if the Ka-Baal split up their single world into smaller portions, pretended them to be different worlds and the ‘united’ them by making a ‘United Void Council’.” Remembrance gave a sharp taste of amusement on his tasting station for others to taste his joke.

  “In any case it is not very relevant for our discussion. While it may sound strange and weird to us, we have to remember that these are aliens and think weirdly compared to our beings. What is important is the content and the demands they make of us, as well as the veiled threat they make in case we refuse to align with their requests. This is what I will enumerate now.” Remembrance signaled his tasting station, and it sent out a list that had been summarized by him. It was tasted by all the seers in the chamber.

  “I have distilled the message of the Ka-Baal in the list you all have with you now. This list is the essence of what they demand, and promise us, the beings of World #6 and all followers of the ‘Truth’. The first point is the claim of the Ka-Baal that they understand our religion, both the old traditional one as practiced everywhere in the worlds of our beings, and the special nature of the ‘Truth’ as practiced in this world #6 of ours. This would be a point of debate in this council, as to whether the Ka-Baal are really capable of understanding our religion and especially the ‘Truth’ as given to us by the Prophet. For the moment I take this averring of the Ka-Baal at face value and proceed to the next point.

  Next the Ka-Baal claim that not only do they agree with our version of the ‘Truth’ and prefer it to the traditional religion of our beings, but they like it and welcome it so much that some of the beings of the Ka-Baal are themselves studying the ‘Truth’ preached by the prophet and are practicing it! I would have found an alien practicing our religion incredulous, but the first part of the message from our own beings also makes a mention about this fact! In any case the gist of this point is that the Ka-Baal prefer the ‘Truth’ of our religion to that of our old religion followed by our beings in the rest of the worlds. This is not surprising, and the Ka-Baal themselves mention the reason. The message of our Prophet enables the Ka-Baal to coexist with any being who follows the Prophet. This is what the Ka-Baal would prefer – to coexist. The orthodoxy and doctrine of the old religion of Ka, and the eternal challenge thrown by Ka means that coexistence is not an option.

  This might sound like good news, but I would like to inject a bit of caution. We may have learnt higher ‘Truth’ from the Prophet, but the base assumptions about the possibility of trickery from Ka still holds valid. We should be cognizant of this possibility. The fact that the Ka-Baal want to coexist must be approached with circumspection, even though we would be just as happy if the Ka-Baal really mean it.

  The next point is what the Ka-Baal offer us… First they promise never to attack world #6 and would not even approach our world let alone descend to the surface without our explicit permission. To that extent we keep our world intact and free. The Ka-Baal intend to attack every other world of our beings and destroy it. I would have been amused at the self-confidence of the Ka-Baal till a few cycles ago, but after the news of their incredible high speed attack on our Grand Coalition fleet, I am starting to give more credence to this claim of theirs. This would be another point of debate in the council – what is the strength of the Ka-Baal, and are they really capable of destroying the other worlds as they claim?

  For the moment, if we go by the claim of the Ka-Baal, that they would defeat all other worlds of our beings, then the next part of the offer is the most enticing as well as baffling. They offer to share all the conquered worlds with us, even ceding control of a few of the worlds not particularly suitable to the Ka-Baal, to us. Why would an alien species want to do that, is beyond my comprehension. We would never have given such an offer. However a hint of why they want us on all the worlds is given in the list of demands made by the Ka-Baal, which is what I come to next.

  “The first demand may sound incredible and unbelievable, or validation of the very words of the Prophet depending on your perspective. The Ka-Baal claim that they can reach here to our World #6 within 500 cycles of receiving our reply! That in itself is an incredible claim given how far off our world is from the heart of the Kalshuk system. Even their warships that attacked our Grand Coalition fleet, fast as they were did not display the capability to reach our world so quickly. It is possible that the Ka-Baal have a new void vessel or technology up their sleeve, which we aren’t aware of. They have displayed such capability on a routine basis. So, for the moment if we believe their claim, then here is the demand they make of us.

  “They want us to give them the finest of our warriors to fight alongside the Ka-Baal warriors in order to attack the other non-believer worlds of our beings. They want to defeat the old religion with its oppressive doctrine, and replace it with our new religion of the ‘Truth’ which lets us co-exist with the Ka-Baal. The Ka-Baal have been frank in letting us know that they do not trust us enough yet, to let us know which of our worlds would be attacked jointly with our warriors, but it isn’t hard to guess. It would most probably be World #11, which is where the Grand Coalition fleet has assembled, and it where the Ka-Baal are threatened most. In any case, notwithstanding the claim of the Ka-Baal that they can reach here directly in 500 cycles, we all know that void vessels have to hop from one world to the other to reach anywhere in the void, just as our own void vessels are forced to do.

  “The Ka-Baal do not want the assistance of the warships on our World #6. In fact the Ka-Baal have explicitly mentioned that if we agree and when the Ka-Baal transport void vessels approach our system, we are to keep our war vessels away and those war vessels should make no attempt to approach the transport vessels. The Ka-Baal transport vessels will be accompanied by Ka-Baal war vessels, and any approach by our own war vessels would be seen as an act of hostility, and responded accordingly. The Ka-Baal intend to win the battle in the void with their own warships, but would use our warriors to land on the world, where our warriors would fight alongside the Ka-Baal warriors and take over the world.

  “Once the world had been won, any surviving warriors of our beings would have the right to settle on that world and practice our religion freely, or could choose to return back here to world #6. In addition, World #6 would have rights to large sectors of the conquered world, the details of which would need to be negotiated. Within those sectors it would be our beings who would rule and govern the sectors. The only restriction on our beings would be that we cannot arm ourselves either on the surface or in the void.

  “Now there are two problems with this approach of the Ka-Baal as far as our beings on this world are concerned at two different levels. First concerns the feasibility of their plan and the capability of the Ka-Baal to execute it. If the Ka-Baal fail to win the battle on the world attacked, not just the warriors who go along with the Ka-Baal, but our whole World #6 would be exposed because our secret would be out. Even if the Ka-Baal managed to win the battle and conquer the world, it still leaves us vulnerable here on World #6 from our own beings.

  “The wrath of our own beings for heresy and betrayal would be fiercer than what is reserved for the Ka-Baal. The Ka-
Baal try to assuage that fear by guaranteeing protection to World #6. Whether the Ka-Baal have the intent and the capability to fulfill that promise is the big question. At one level it would be logical for the Ka-Baal to protect World #6 because we are their only ally and helping them win on the surface, which the Ka-Baal would find very hard to do on their own. At another level it is equally logical for the Ka-Baal to betray us and let us our worlds fight each other and weaken us as a whole. That would make the job of the Ka-Baal easier. There isn’t any easy answers either on the Ka-Baal intent, or on their capability.

  “The second problem is at a different level. Let us say that the Ka-Baal are able to do whatever they claim they can do, and with our help are eventually able to defeat the rest of our beings who follow the old religion. What would the Ka-Baal do then? Would they let us co-exist in peace and allow is to practice our religion in the open as is our dream, and let us prosper and thrive? Or would the Ka-Baal turn on us once the rest of our beings are defeated? Our beings having served the purpose of the Ka-Baal, and our utility to them over, would the Ka-Baal then finish off their agenda by eliminating the remaining members of their enemy species, namely, us the true believers? That way the Ka-Baal would have pulled off a classic divide-and-conquer strategy, and we would have been played for a fool.

  “In summary, aligning with the Ka-Baal holds out the promise of greater things for us beings of World #6 and our ‘True path’. It also hold great danger of the possibility of failure or betrayal. The path either ways in perilous because of the veiled threat the Ka-Baal hold out in their message. If we refuse to cooperate, the Ka-Baal mentions that it would only be logical for them to do the next best thing to take advantage of their knowledge of our heresy here on World #6. They would simply let the rest of our beings know about our heresy. It would keep some of our beings’ resources from the rest of the worlds engaged in trying to exterminate us here on World #6, while ensuring that at least one of the worlds of Ka-Baal’s enemy, namely us in World #6 never has the opportunity to fight them.