by Ladron Reece
91220.2300
Seven years after Justification
(In the year 2247)
-=Tolarum’s Ship on Sveji=-
The visitor waited silently aboard the ship, until its inhabitant was finished with his bathing. The serenade she was getting was quite lovely. She had no idea Tolarum had such a voice. Granted, he certainly had enough time to practice.
Most believed Tolarum and Ladron would never be seen again until such time as the Reece symbiont was ready for a new host. However, times changed, secrets came out, and responsible parties paid the price.
She sat at what appeared to be the kitchen table, if this was indeed the kitchen, and thumbed a well-worn notebook. It was old-fashioned paper, written in with pencil. There were dozens of sketches inside, and hundreds of scrawled notes. All the sketches appeared to be of plant and animal life. Birds, rodents, fish, flowers, trees. They were all painstakingly drawn by hand with arrows calling out features of interest. Sometimes there were just question marks or confused notes such as What could that possibly be for? or Is that a nose or a reproductive organ?
There was a certain historical curiosity about the notebook. What must it have been like for the first explorers on Trill who had no computers or cameras to capture images of the discoveries they made. Arriving at islands or continents with only limited time and hundreds of newly discovered species that they wished to study. Imagine being the first Trill to discover the symbiont caves. Seeing these odd creatures, that somehow appeared to have harnessed the power of lightning, gliding effortlessly through the pools.
It must have been terrifying for that first Trill, but if no one had had the fortitude to study the symbionts, perhaps the Trill never would have discovered that their planet-mates were not only sentient, but also the older, wiser, and more intelligent of the two species. And indeed, the symbionts would have been extinct by now, despite their wisdom, if not for their Trill partners.
She very much appreciated the mind of Tolarum in this moment, knowing the courage it must take to explore such a strange new world at such close range. It would be easy to cower in the ship, never to emerge, for fear of being consumed by the local fauna, or poisoned by the seemingly innocuous pollen of a flower.
And he had a voice fit for the opera to boot.
She didn’t know much about the man she was sent here to meet. The Symbiosis Commission employed him before her time. She had seen pictures, talked to old friends, but other than deciphering that he was a zoologist and botanist at heart from the notebook, there was not much else for her to go on.
When the sound of the shower water ceased, so did the singing. She closed the notebook, and laid it back on the table, oriented exactly as it had been when she picked it up. Subconsciously she fixed her hair and brushed off her clothing. Seeing his thoughts and notes had in a way been a rather intimate experience and she was suddenly seeing Tolarum as a familiar man that she should be concerned with presenting herself for, rather than just some stranger that she had no cause to impress.
A few minutes passed, and when he did emerge he was, fortunately, wearing a towel around his waist. Tolarum rounded the corner from the shower to the room she was in, and begin whistling, still oblivious to her presence.
“Hello Tolarum.”
Tolarum turned, shrieked, and ran back in the direction he had come from.
“Wait! My name is Sellena! I was sent by the Symbiosis Commission!”
Tolarum’s face popped out around the corner. “Why?” There was no doubt she was Trill by looking at her. Once the surprise of realizing he was not alone wore of, it was replaced by the shock of knowing that he was in the presence of another of his kind. Besides Ladron Reece, he never expected to see another Trill.
“I have news.”
“Let me get dressed.” Tolarum asked self-consciously.
“Of course.” She smiled. She could appreciate his modest nature. It seemed to be a hallmark of the scientific community.
“Would you mind if I replicated something to eat?” She shouted to be heard through the ship’s walls.
“Go ahead. But if you want a real treat, there is a dish I made containing all local ingredients in the refrigeration unit.” He called back.
She opened the door to the unit and gazed upon the concoction of which Tolarum had spoke. It appeared to be a salad but it was the garnish that really concerned her. It clearly came from something that was alive at some point, and there was no way she was going to ingest it.
Sellena decided a bowl of soup broth from the replicator was the safest thing for her stomach at the moment. As she ate, she heard a very faint hum from nearby. It took her a few moments to place the sound, but when she did, she laughed to herself.
“I’m not armed.”
Tolarum revealed himself, and the scanner he was holding. “Sorry, can’t be too careful. We get a lot of break-ins around here.”
“Right.”
Tolarum sat down at the table across from her. “Oh, did you not see the food I told you about?”
“I… I’m on a diet.” She stuttered.
“Oh, well then maybe it’s not for you. The garnish is tasty but quite high in fat.”
“Well, you are probably wondering what news I have. But first, where is Ladron Reece?”
Tolarum’s face turned red, and he looked down at the table. “Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure. I think he’s out for a hike.” It was sort of a lie, but there was an infinitesimally small probability that Ladron was on a hike, wherever he was. So, technically, it was possible.
“Well, hopefully he gets back soon. I guess I’ll just tell you first then.”
“Okay.” Tolarum nodded, not bothering to tell her that the chances of seeing Ladron Reece anywhere other than on a billboard were pretty remote.
“Felani is in prison. The truth about your personality typing program finally came out, as did your exile and Ladron’s. Felani took the fall for all of it, especially the cover-up. The government has pardoned you and Ladron both, seeing you each as victims of Felani’s cover-up, and you are each welcome to return to Trill.”
Tolarum could only blink. This was certainly not at all what he had expected. “Well, that’s great news.” He said, somewhat solemnly.
Sellena was taken aback by his muted response. She had expected jumps for joy and laughter and confetti. “You don’t seem very happy.”
“No! Please, thank you so much. It’s just that I’ve been here for over seven years with no prospects of going back to Trill. This place has really become my home.”
“Well, like I said, you have been fully pardoned. You are free to go or not go anywhere you want. So is Ladron.”
“I need to think. Do you have to return to Trill soon?” Tolarum asked.
“I have a ship in orbit. We can leave anytime. Do you know where Ladron usually hikes? I can try to locate him on the sensors. I’d like to tell him right away as well.”
“Uh, well. There’s a thing, about that, that we need to discuss.”
Sellena could tell by his mannerisms that he did not want to tell her what he had to say. He was fidgeting with his hands and looking straight down at the table.
“Go on,” She prodded.
“Well, Ladron has sort of, well, picked up here where he left off on Trill. He’s made himself out to be a god and has quite the following.”
“Oh.” There was an awkward pause of about ten seconds before she continued. “The Symbiosis commission wasn’t even sure if there was life here. I guess that answers that question. How big of a following are we talking?”
“Planet-wide.” Tolarum answered.
Sellena laughed out loud. “No seriously, how big of a following?”
“You heard me.”
Sellena rubbed the bridge of her nose, as a headache instantly began to form. “When was the last time you spoke to him?”
“He visited maybe ten days ago.”
“Did he give you any idea where he was going?”
“He did mention a city. It’s on the west coast of the southern hemisphere’s largest continent. I just can’t remember the name.”
“That should do. Would you excuse me for a moment?” Sellena rose from her seat and exited the ship. Tolarum watched her out the window as she spoke orders into a communications device. When she was done, she came back in. Tolarum scrambled back into his seat so she wouldn’t know he had been watching her.
“Mister Reece will likely be joining us very shortly.” She said. “This is why you don’t send exiles to a planet without searching the planet for intelligent life first. How much has he taken from the people?”
“Well,” Tolarum paused as he considered his words carefully. There was no easy way to deliver news this bad, especially when you knew how angry it would make the recipient. “I would say, a tidy sum. I don’t know how much for sure.”
“Could you be less specific?” She asked sarcastically. He had really answered her question, despite the fact he had attempted to be evasive. She took his attempt to dodge the question as an affirmation that Ladron had taken a lot.
Tolarum was saved by the proverbial bell, which in this case was the hum of a transporter. Ladron Reece appeared before them aboard the ship, resplendent in his bright white and jewel encrusted preaching outfit. He look befuddled, as he stared at his empty and curved hand, where his microphone had once been.
It took him a moment to orient himself and realize he was aboard Tolarum’s ship.
“Dude! I was right in the middle of a performance! I mean sermon. Oh, well hello there.” Ladron’s anger turned into a smooth flirtatious voice, as he saw Sellena. Then, his demeanor turned into shock. “Wait, you’re a Trill!”
“That’s what the spots tell me, Ladron.” She said.
“We can go home.” Tolarum said.
“Go home? Back to Trill? Don’t mess with me on this.” Ladron poked at Sellena, just to make sure she was not a hologram. “What about that scary bitch?”
“Felani is in prison.” Tolarum answered, knowing exactly who Ladron meant. “We’ve both been pardoned by the government.”
“They felt nearly eight years in exile for two people who never even received a trial, was more than enough punishment.” Sellena added.
Ladron could not believe a word of what he was hearing. Two minutes ago he was going about his daily life here on this world, and now he was being offered the chance to return home. Home, where he currently had nothing. No money, no possessions, no pick of the females, and no cool car named after the local equivalent of a poisonous snake to drive at unsafe speeds down the highway.
“I don’t want to go.”
“You have to,” Sellena replied.
“Oh sure! I have to! Ladron, you have to leave Trill so no one finds out what the Symbiosis commission did! Ladron! You have to go home, because now everyone knows what the Symbiosis commission did! You abduct me off the planet, now you want me to go home against my will too. No fair!”
“I can’t let you stay here and interfere with the natural development of this culture.”
Ladron actually laughed out loud. “Oh, that ship has sailed babycakes. I am their culture. Remove from this world without any explanation and there will be chaos.”
“Why didn’t you stop this?” Sellena asked, turning her attention to Tolarum.
“Don’t blame me for this! I’m just one man up against the mad genius. He wasn’t really hurting anyone, physically, so I left him be. It was the Commissions bright idea to send us out here.”
Sellena looked out over the valley visible from the windows of the ship. The sun of this world was just about to breach the horizon, shedding light on a brand new day, and illuminating the valley before her. Perhaps that was just what these people needed, she thought, to be illuminated. Ladron was correct, if these people saw him as a god, then removing him without explanation would cause planet-wide strife. People would splinter off into different religious factions, and riots and wars would erupt across the globe. She knew this all too well, as the same paranoia had once gripped her own world in the past.
If an explanation, or in this case, an exposé, would ease the strife on this world, then she would offer it.
“I’ll make a deal with you Ladron. Spend the next hour with me, and if at the end of that time you still want to stay, you will be allowed to. If at any time in the next hour you wish to leave, just say so, and my ship will transport you away.”
Ladron thought this sounded like the best deal of all time. Just humor this chick for an hour, and he could go back to doing what he did best, pulling donations from the sheep. “Deal.”
“Excellent,” Sellena said. She took out her communications device, and flipped it open. “Bridge, this is Sellena. Beam myself, Ladron, and a dozen officers to Ladron’s previous coordinates. I don’t care who.”
[Aye, ma’am.]
“Wait, what are you doing?” Ladron asked. Before she could answer, the transporter engulfed him, and Ladron was once again back on the stage where he had previously been. Only this time he was flanked by Sellena, Tolarum, and a dozen other Trills.
“Ladron has returned!” Someone shouted from the crowd. “And he has multiplied!”
Sellena took a microphone that was lying on the floor, presumably the one Ladron had dropped, and pointed towards the cameras at the rear of the venue. “Are you filming this? Get on the phone with your networks and tell them to patch you in live. There is about to be a big announcement made.”
Ladron slinked back towards the curtain but was waylaid by Sellena’s crew.
“I want this to go out live, all over this world.” Sellena told him. “So no one can doubt or debate that you are a fraud. Maybe then things will return to normal here, without the wars that usually accompany religious ambiguity.”
“Uh, maybe we shouldn’t do that. Let’s just go back to Tolarum’s ship, and forget all this happened.”
Sellena ignored him, and waited for the go sign from the cameramen in the back that they were patched in live all over the globe. She lifted the microphone to her lips, and spoke.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Sellena. I am from a planet, many lightyears from here, called Trill. We are a simple bipedal humanoid race, just like yourselves, merely a few years ahead of you in technology. Many years ago, a man named Ladron Reece was exiled from our world. He had portrayed himself as a prophet and taken advantage of people’s beliefs to gain a cult following on our world. We sent him here, unaware I regret to say, that there was any life on your world to be exploited.”
“Ladron is as flesh and blood as you and I. I’m sorry to say, you have all been had. Whatever afterlife he has promised you does not exist.”
She motioned for Ladron to be brought forward. Two her men shoved Reece to the front of the stage where Sellena waited. Ladron managed just a sheepish grin towards the very confused looking crowd. Sellena grabbed his hand, and before he realized what was happening, she cut him across the palm with a knife. The crowd gasped, as blood dripped onto the floor.
“W-T-F you psycho!” Ladron pulled his hand back defensively, and cradled it like a wounded animal.
“He bleeds just like you and I, and he can’t heal himself either, can you Ladron?”
Murmurs began resonating throughout the hall, as Sellena continued on. Ladron just kept on grinning sheepishly.
“My species was once like yours. We drove vehicles with internal combustion engines, watched televisions much like yours, and grew food on farms just like yours. I came here to bring Ladron back to his homeworld where he belongs. When I found out about everything he had done here, I considered just vanishing with him without an explanation. However, I realized that could lead to hundreds if not thousands of years of war and turmoil on your world. So, I decided to tell you all the truth, right now, on all the airwaves of your world, so there can be no argument over the fact that that man,” Sellena pointed at Ladron, “Is a fraud.”
She paused, waiting to see if anyone in the crowd was going to a question her. A hand slowly raised, from a middle aged woman at the front near the stage.
“Yes?” Sellena asked.
“But, how? How could he fool us all so easily?”
Sellena walked to the front of the stage to be closer to the woman who had asked the question. “We Trill coexist on our world with a species we called symbionts. Our lifespans are much shorter than theirs. The symbionts can live for hundreds of years, but they cannot exist outside of a series of caves on our world. So, many on our world serve as hosts to the symbionts. They live within us, so they can move about and not be confined to the caves. In exchange, they share with us the collective life experiences of each host that came before us. Your prophet Ladron is the fifth person to host the symbiont named Reece. I am sorry to say that he has exploited the knowledge and abilities of those that came before him to fool you all into believing him.”
“What will become of this Reece once Ladron dies?” The same woman asked, with a look on her face that seemed to indicate that Ladron’s death would not be long in coming if she had anything to say about it.
“Reece will live on in a new, hopefully more honest, host.” Sellena answered. “For hundreds of years to come.”
“But, you don’t understand. The Rued clan was promised a place in Wonderland. We gave up all our possessions to Ladron because he said we would not need them. We sold our land and took our children out of school. We closed our businesses and laid-off all of our employees. We… we cannot go back.” The woman’s anger was overshadowed only by her fear of what she was realizing. That her once powerful family, like millions of other believers, now had nothing.
“I’m truly sorry. There is nothing I can do for you. You’re going to have to find your own way back to the way things were for your world before Ladron came. But at least you can do so with a clear understanding that there is no god named Ladron Reece and no magical place called Wonderland waiting for you. That might not come as much of a comfort now in what is sure to be a chaotic near future, but it will, I assure you, spare you years of turmoil in the long term.”
“How am I supposed to feed my children with that?” The Rued woman shouted. The rest of the crowd began to shout too, and soon there was a crush towards the stage.
Sellena stepped away, as the mob grew louder and louder. A shoe flew by Ladron’s head. He ducked out of the way just in time, but it looked like it was only a matter of moments before the entire crowd rushed the stage, at which point flying shoes would be the least of his worries.
“Come on everyone! Let’s all settle down.” Ladron shouted. “I still have some of your money. I didn’t spend all of it. Just most of it.”
“Dibs on his face!” A very large man carrying a pipe that he had apparently just torn loose form the wall shouted.
“Now now, can’t we just discuss this like rational adults?” Ladron asked far too quietly to be heard over the room.
“Our bargain?” Sellena asked him. “If you wish to leave, all you have to do is ask.”
“You know, I do miss the symbiont caves sometimes. I think I’ll go.” Ladron said, as he ducked out of the way of a flying piece of fruit. The crowd was climbing up on the stage now, and Ladron, Sellena, her crewmates, and Tolarum were backed up against the curtain. Sellena’s crew tried to form some kind of protective front between her and the mob, but Ladron was very much on his own.
“I should just leave you here to be torn to pieces. The only reason why I’m saving you is because of Reece.”
“Yeah, well, can’t hurt the symbionts! That’s the golden rule. Now, lets say we try that transporter.” Ladron suggested. Sellena called her ship, just as the man with the pipe broke into a run towards Ladron. By the time he swung, his pipe passed harmlessly through the swirl of energy that had once been Ladron Reece.
Somewhere in the crowd, the woman going by the name Rued stood silently, with tears of rage spilling down her cheeks. In her mind, thoughts of a revenge far in the future were already playing out. The vendetta was already beginning.
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Ladron Reece
Former Soothsayer