The Federation Chronicles
Olympus Colony

Chapter 5 The Sacrifice




Tyrian and Lydon stood with Mort watching the evangelist say praises to his God's in an annoying nonstop continuous drone. As if his oratory would gain him their divine favor if he just kept talking for another three hours as he had been doing already. An appreciative throng of people of a similar mind set were hanging on his every word too which made Tyrian even more upset... After all, it was he and his entourage who followed the correct pantheon of Gods. Not this bunch of imbeciles.



His Gods were more directly involved.. They were brutal.. They were to be feared. They worshiped Bellona.. The Goddess of War. She required that all of her subjects be given her brand too. Just below the neck in between the shoulder blades.



Tyrian himself was a strong man and very tall by human standards. He was the one of the biggest men in the entire arena and he was certainly formidable in his cleverness and brutality. Those who bowed and succumbed to fear, followed Tyrian.



Tyrian was blessed with good looks too. Long black hair that covered his broad shoulders and brilliant blue eyes to compliment his strong, lean, and chiseled muscles. He was accepted by their Goddess to be the leader of the rest of them. To be the go between. Him and his lieutenants had that honor which he was very proud of.



Tyrian finally uncrossed his arms and pulled a thick and sharp blade from his sheath. Looking over to Mort with a most serious gaze he coaxed the acolyte on.



"Our Goddess has demanded a sacrifice. A sacrifice of the infidel. I have decided to give you the honor of carrying it out brother Mort. Will you bring happiness to her today and earn out mark?"



Mort looked up at the taller man. He himself being a bit on the short and chubby side in spite of the hard work and sparse rations that others were forced to endure as he had excelled at stealing for himself if covert means didn't work, then a good bash on the victim's head would get the job done faster too if need be.



But this was cold blooded murder he was being asked to perform. It was this crowded and unremarkable life of remaining a petty crook, or listening to Tyrian and joining the major leagues.



Mort put out his hand and accepted the knife. "For the Goddess of War." He nervously swore.

"For the Goddess of War." Tyrian and his lieutenants agreed.



"When the deed is done you know where to go. We will hold a feast and you will be the guest of honor. Now to claim your glory and appease the Gods."



Mort nodded and turned towards the open street.

It was one of the very few plaza's that the Shanty Town had and this was only because it was a nexus between three pathways. The evangelist had simply stood upon a plastic fruit container and began spouting his lies as Tyrian had claimed.



Mort slowly walked to his victim keeping his blade hidden within his burlap tunic...

Tyrian and his Lieutenants watched with morbid fascination. A murder carried out in broad daylight. This would strike fear in the infidels like nothing else would.



The evangelist was a man in his mid thirties by all common appearances with close cropped brown hair. He raised his fist in the air and shouted the dictates that their people would live under.



Nobody paid Mort any mind as all of their infatuated eyes were on the orator, making Mort's job all the more easy to perform.



Mort slowly made his way to the front and once there, with no hesitation, plunged the sharpened instrument of death deep into the man's stomach. Then almost as easily as it had slid in, Mort pulled it out and gutted him again. And again.



The evangelist's eyes popped open in shock. Several women screamed in fright. All the humans ran several feet away in terror. Except for the Evangelist who fell down off of the crate he had been standing on. His eyes open but to a dead face.



Mort felt exhilarated. He waved his bloody blade in the air and held it out while he swept it through the air proudly displaying his deed for all to see.



Then.. He was shrouded in darkness as if the sun had been blotted out.



Mort looked up at the sky and gave a blood curdling scream.



"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" ~ Crunch ~



**********



Matilda's communication device beeped. She took it from her golden colored silk belt and opened it up to see her fellow peace officer Mariana on the screen who she knew was standing up on a higher elevation amongst the bleachers..



"What's going on down there Matilda? Do you need some back up?"



Matilda moved her flat leather sandal off of what was left of Mort. A gooey red and yellow puddle in the sandy soil.



"Nah, some human just murdered another human so I stamped him out. There doesn't appear to be any other accomplices so I'm going to go take a lunch break. Just watch over my station while I'm gone ok?. I wont be but about thirty minutes. I'm tired of standing in this direct hot sun anyway. I need a juicer. I'll cover you for yours just as soon as I get back... Over.."





Tyrian and the rest of the men looked on wide eyed at the remains of their aspiring acolyte.



"Come on men, let's go report the success of our mission to the Goddess."



"What about Mort?" Lydon inquired.



"What about him? Let's go." Tyrian sneered.



The other men followed with no further questions. Lydon watched the Titaness lazily walk off as if nothing had even happened. ..





*******



Ping, ping, ping.



Yegori watched in silence... Nothing made sense..



The Earth's upper atmosphere.. Then a Giant hand.. A Giant face.. Darkness.. Movement. Light and another Giant eye peering in at him... And he was no longer in outer space where he should be in a floating casket by now.



But he was here.. And a negroid man was pounding on his door. Peering in just as the Giant eye had done. But he seemed normal sized. He also spoke in Russian which Yegori understood well enough. But how did this man speak it?





"We just want you to come out so we can feed you. And explain where you are now. Believe me when I tell you that you are safe now. It will all start to make sense once you come out.



So why don't you open this door and do just that.?"



Yegori stood and looked into the dark face that was staring right at him.



"You can tell me from where you stand. I am not coming out."

"But how will we feed you.. Do you have any water to drink? How will we get it to you if you don't open the door?"



Yegori looked back within his capsule.. The man had a good point. He had no food left. He had no water left either. His mission was not supposed to go over twelve hours in length. But here he still was, perhaps two days later. Still in his darkened capsule. The batteries to the emergency lighting having gone dead yesterday.



"If you are a good man, and can speak Russian, tell me who the chairman of the Politburo is."



The dark skinned man didn't know what he was talking about. But tried to clear the water some more.



"Look, these Titans have great technology and they are translating my language which is there's too and making it sound the way that your brain needs to hear it. But I do not know your country's history. Or even the planet that you came from. I'm just one human trying to help another one who is acting like a child right now. Come out and let us help you."



Yegori quickly snipped at his would be savior.

"Go away. You are not a good communist if you do not know who the chairman of the Politburo is so you must be a Capitalistic operative. I will never surrender to a Capitalist.. I am sorry my brother. Please go away now and read the Communist Manifesto in your spare time, it will dispel the evil illusion that you are presently living under.."



The dark skinned man looked up and shook his head in the negative. Then he went back down the foot ladder and could not be seen from the viewport anymore.





Then Yegori heard some words that penetrated his capsule and seemed to be coming from above.



"Ok, Derrick couldn't convince him to come out.. It's my turn Glen. I'll be real gentle. I promise. ..



Then a deeper more mature voice seemed to address him directly.



"Man who is in the orbital vessel.. My name in Glendora Samara. Me, my sister, and the man that you just talked to mean you no harm. But in the interests of your safety you must come out. Or at least take the first step of opening your vessel's door.. If for no other reason you need fresh air and water. We detect no water outside of your body so we know that you are out of it.



Also, me and my sister are of much larger size and volume than Earthlings are. We are called Titans and we come from a Federation Planet.. I don't expect you to know what I'm talking about but the size difference between us and you is rather vast and can not be denied. We do not wish to harm you in any way. We want to help you. And if you don't open your door we will be forced to open it for you. Not to be an aggressive act. But as an act of civic responsibility. You need help and we wish to give it to you. Now will you please open your vessel's door?"



Yegori was fairly certain that she was not lying about their size differences. But he still wasn't ready for this.. Quietly he removed the medical box and opened a small door behind it. From there he removed a pistol. It was his last line of defense.. It was a Makarov semi-auto pistol with a ten round clip.



After a few more minutes he heard more thunderous voices from above.



"You'd better stick with the plan Mara. I'm serious here. You make one wrong move and I'm sending you out of here. I probably should do it now anyway knowing you.."



"No Glen, I can follow the plan and be gentle... Ok, watch me."



Yegori took the safety off of the side arm and aimed it at the door.

Then what could only be a finger tip pressed against the viewport of the door.... The tip turning white as it applied more pressure. Another moment later and the thick glass began to groan.. Cracks spread from the center of the circular window out to the round metal reinforced sides.

With one last squeak the glass gave and burst as the finger tip entered the capsule and then doubled over and began to pull on the door which immediately began to buckle under the immense pressure.



Yegori just stared wide mouthed and in partial shock as the door bent in on itself. The pins burst into bent fragments as the door detached from the capsule and was lifted away.



A rush of light and cool fresh air came in immediately.



Mara twirled the capsule door around her pinky tip that had dislodged it.

"Hey Glen do you think I could make a cute ear ring out of this door? He, he, he."



Mara was giggling like a little girl pleased with her fashion accessory idea.



Glendoria put her hand on Mara's shoulder and tried to quiet her in a hushed tone.



"Shhh.. Be quiet Mara. Let him adjust to what just happened and go sit over on the couch while I talk to him."



Mara shrugged her discontent and took her capsule door with her in order to fiddle with it some. Testing it's flimsy strength once she sat down again, it bent in any direction that her finger tips attempted to move it as if it were made of aluminum foil.



"Sir, we have set some water outside of your craft and a box of sand in case you need to relieve yourself. We have also put some food on the table below as well.



I apologize about damaging your craft but you gave us no other option and we are not going to allow you to harm yourself while you are in our company. So take some time and when you are ready, come out and enjoy the provisions we have provided for you. After that perhaps you will be more in the mood to talk with us."



Glendoria walked back over to her younger sister and sat next to her.



"I have to go to work now Tara. But you remember the procedures we talked about earlier and I expect you to follow them. I'll be back after my shift is over. Glendoria looked away thoughtfully for a moment though and then thought better of things.





In fact, you're coming with me. Mir can unpack your things and get you settled in. There's a nice fish bar near the administration building that we can get you something to eat at. Let's go."



"But Glen I want to stay here and see if he comes out."



"Nope! If I know you you're going to find a way to coax him out and then scare the death out of him. We have to treat him differently because he's never met Titans before. How would you feel if some Giant snatched you out of the atmosphere and then took you home to become a pet? Besides this will give him more time to acclimate without us all over top of him."



Mara didn't like the reasoning but it made sense. Then her eyes lit up and she hopped off of the couch on a mission .



"Ok Glen, let me tell Mir where everything goes and I'll be right out and we'll go!



With that Tara bounded out of the room. Glendoria watched her go and wondered what horrible mischief the girl was planning but decided it couldn't have been that bad whatever it was as they were leaving in five minutes regardless of what instructions she was giving her personal assistant. Glendoria reflected on how the fortunes of her family had increased as she was growing up. They could not afford Mir when she was Mara's age but now... Her father even had a trophy wife ever since their mother had divorced him. And her father's ties that he now enjoyed had gotten her this position she had no illusions about.



Glendoria had always wanted to help colonize a planet. Beginning with a moon as in this case was a good start she reasoned. Coming from a very wealthy family had its perks.. But now she was seeing the reality that came along with the adventures that she had naively reasoned it would mostly be... The politics and others who had to be dealt with. She was learning that she was just a cog in a much larger bureaucratic machine. True, should could make changes here and there but the over all direction that things took was still way above her paygrade.



These were depressing facts to have to grapple with she sighed as she made her way to the terrestrial craft that would take her and Tara to work today.



*********



"Ok Mir, this is what I need you to do while we're gone..."



Mir was a very pretty girl just a few Earth years older than Tara. A thin petite frame made her Latino appearance a very cute compliment to her tootsie roll colored eyes to be within the frame of her dark and straight hair that she kept neatly in a braded pony tail much like Tara's twin tails.



Mir was very happy to be the personal assistant of the Mara family. She had her own living quarters and got a very good wage as compensation for her babysitting job which is pretty much how she saw things. She was there to help keep a very rambunctious teenage girl out of trouble due to the fact that her parents were too busy to do the job that she had been hired to for.



Her and Tara being close in age bonded very quickly as Tara was a very nice girl once you got to know her and past her mountains of energy that would see the girl bounce from one problem to the next.. Even creating them if they weren't already there.



Mir was now going off world with her employer's daughter. The idea excited her as she knew, being a short order cook back on Vorishia was never going to afford her such an opportunity. Mr. Samara had given her the opportunity to take a leave for the summer while his errant daughter spent the summer months on Olympus. But take a leave when she could go off world? Not a chance. She instead used the offer for the brief severance to her advantage by convincing the older man that her loyalties lied with his family at this point and wouldn't dream of leaving the poor girl all alone on a far flung planetoid thereby pleasing her employer all the more.



So now she stood after putting away the mountains of cloths before Tara who had the very mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she was given a story of the special help and assistance that her and Glendoria needed. She was even given a quick cover story too in case things went wrong. Such was the quick thinking of the devious girl who she was to try and look after during their stay on this moon.


Mir accepted the story and agreed to help Mara while the two girls were out. She didn't think the task given to her would be that difficult anyway.