Chapter 67

Elsa was right. We did need to deal with the consortium and we needed to do it soon. Right now our actions had everyone on the other Earth scared shitless. If we didn't do something soon, those people, regardless of how scared they were might decide to take matters into their own hands. I didn't want that to happen. To prevent that I needed to manage them before they started think they could manage me. Acknowledging that, I decided I needed to hold a meeting. The first two people I called for were Angela Kent and Sydney White.

We met in Lord Barnabas' old office. I had the two of them brought to me for a private chat. When they arrived both of them looked frightened. Considering what had been going on in the last forty-eight hours I couldn't blame them. Still I couldn't show them any sympathy.

"It all over for your Earth," I told them as the guards who had brought them before me left the room. "In the next twenty-four hours I will have conquered your Earth and the system that you were part of will be destroyed. The question now is what to do with what is left over. Do you have any ideas?"

"Mercy, my lord," Angela Kent muttered in reply, dropping without hesitation to her knees. The woman looked frail and beaten and completely vulnerable. Tears flowed down her pale cheeks as she look up at me and begged. "You must show the people mercy."

"I must, must I?" I inquired coldly, glaring into Angela's eyes. "I don't think so at all. I personally think that I should teleport every last citizen of your Earth to Game World and let them try to survive here. What do you think of that? Personally, I think that none of them would survive."

"They wouldn't my lord," Angela replied in a hushed, quivering voice, "and that is why you should show them compassion. You know how cruel this world can be and knowing it, you must show my people that you can be merciful."

"Again Angela," I said firmly in response, "I think not. I gave your people a chance already. I offered then new programming that they could watch and enjoy without playing the games that they have been playing for centuries but they rejected it. They would rather watch a man torn to shreds by a wild beast when that man didn't have a chance than to watch someone skilled in hunting stalk the beast and kill it. No Angela I don't think that I will be merciful at all."

It was then that Sydney White made his presence known by clearing his throat in an effort to draw my attention to him. As my eyes fell upon the man, he spoke.

"How can we serve you then, my lord?" Sydney asked humbly from where he stood beside a kneeling Angela.

The man looked different from the one who'd come to Game World a few months ago. He'd lost some weight but not a lot and he now wore clothing that had been made on Game World and not the pin-stripe suits that he and his fellow network employees wore on the other Earth, but none of that was why he looked different. It was his humility that made him look different. The man who had come to Game World those few months ago, while afraid of what would happen to him had still been filled with arrogance and contempt towards the denizens of Game World. Now that attitude was gone. To my eyes that was a positive change.

"I will tell you in a moment," I told Sydney, staring him in the eye for a moment before going on, but for now I want you to listen. I've learnt a great deal about the place you call home in the last forty-eight hours and what I have learnt might shock even you for I know for a fact that most that I have learned is unknown to the people of your Earth. Your masters, the Corporation and their minions in the government and at the networks have lied to your people for well over a thousand years. Your Earth is dead. It died thousands of years ago, exploited by your ancestors and abandoned by those who followed in their footstep. Not only is your planet dead, but I have also learned that your people are on the verge of extinction. Did you know that my slaves?"

"No my lord," both Sydney and Angela gasped, their faces going even whiter than they had already been.

"It is true," I told them both in a very solemn manner. "Access to your government records and the skilled interrogation of my friends and mates has pried this secret from the lips of your masters. Your Earth's current population number almost the same as that of Game Worlds; a mere hundred million citizens when once your population numbered in the billions. What is worse is the fact that your people are having no children. Your birthrate is but a fraction of your death rate. Your own government sources have calculated that if the current trend continues then your population will die out in five hundred years."

"No," Angela gasped in denial.

"Yes my slave," I told her with a sigh, "it is true and I have the documents and records to prove it if you doubt me."

"We do not, my lord," Sydney White declared softly for both Angela and him.

"I didn't think you did," I told the man. "Truthfully, given what I have learned I would say that it would be better to send your people to Game World than to let them live out their pathetic existence on your Earth. Considering the fact that almost ninety-five percent of your people live and die in their apartments without meeting another of their fellow humans in the flesh and that the other five percent are the only ones who do anything semi-productive on your Earth, it really makes me want to just finish them all off right here and now. At least here, there is a slim chance that they would survive."

"Yes my lord," Sydney White murmured softly in reply, his face and form limp with submission to my reasoning. It was a pitiful sight.

"You've heard about what happened to Mai Woo," I asked them both.

"Yes my lord," both of them replied in a sombre manner. Tears formed in Angela's eyes once again and they quickly streaked her face adding to the dampness that was already there.

"For her I won't kill your people," I told them bluntly. "Her blood and her loyalty have bought your people a second chance and you should remember that. I've called you here to tell you that things will change once I am done with the conquest of your world. I've been told that my people on your Earth have been very busy. They've plucked the vast majority of your leadership off of your Earth and they've plopped them down here on Game World. Most of them are either dead now or learning to live a life of slavery. The result is that there is a void on your planet that needs to be filled and it is not one that I want anything to do with. When all of this is over I'll have other matters to attend to here on Game World. I don't intend to babysit you people."

"Yes my lord," both Sydney and Angela muttered in reply.

Their faces were now filled with amazement at what I was telling them. It was clear that they hadn't expected to hear my declaration that I would spare their people. Now they were paying close attention to every word that I said.

"I'm going to need both of you to help me," I continued, sighing as I did and pausing to glance at them again. "You Angela have shown me that your people can change if pushed in the right direction and given guidance and you Sydney, while not exactly a stellar example of what your people could become, have demonstrated the possibility and to me that is something. My first concern is the hundred million or so people on your world who are currently either cringing in fear in their homes or out rioting in the corridors of their apartment complexes. I need to reassure them that life will go on and that their world is safe even if it is changing. I want to use the consortium to reach out to them and do that."

"But my lord," Sydney said in protest, "you've destroyed the consortium."

"Yes I have," I admitted without hesitation, "and I've destroyed the other networks as well, or to be more truthful I've destroyed their boards of directors and their senior executives and their upper levels of management. What I have left behind are people who are looking for direction and we're going to give it to them. I want the two of you to take charge of the consortium."

"My lord!" both Sydney and Angela exclaimed in wide-eyed disbelief.

"Don't worry," I responded raising a hand to shush their pending protests, "I'm not going to toss you in the deep end and watch to see if you sink or swim. I'm going to set up a new managing council to oversee the rebuilding of your planet and part of that council will be responsible for overseeing the management of the consortium and how the consortium interacts with Game World."

"But what about the other networks, my lord?" Sydney White asked, gazing at me with a look of confusion on his face. "Won't they try and oppose us?"

"There will not be any more networks out there after today," I told both Sydney and Angela firmly but bluntly. "There will only be one network and it will be controlled by me and all programming will be vetted by me and if anyone steps out of line in the future, they will have to deal with me. We're changing your world, my slaves and you are going to be part of the process. What do you say about that?"

"We will serve you loyally, my lord," Sydney responded, bowing his head in submission, "and help you make this endeavour come true."

"Yes my lord," Angela said in a serious tone, "we will do everything we can to make you proud of us. You can trust us to do what you ask."

I wondered about that for a moment but I didn't voice my thoughts or comment about them. I knew I would need to put safeguards in place once the conflict was over and we had won the day. For now I would just have to move carefully and keep an eye on what I could and trust others to do the same. Thankfully I had a small army of like thinking friends who shared the same distrust of the other Earth and its citizens. Hopefully that would be enough. For now I needed to give these people some orders.

"Very well," I told them both, acknowledging their declarations of fealty, "we will see. For now I want the two of you to return to your Earth and to assume control of the consortium and before you say anything in protest, I'll also be sending along with you a detachment of troops and one of Richards' technical team, so that you will have help in what I'll be asking you to do. You're to seize control of the teleportation centre and the broadcast facility. Once you've done that the technician will release the Game World feed to the consortiums receivers so you can start broadcasting. For now I don't care what you broadcast. The point is to give the people something to focus on so that their not out rioting. Eventually we will start promoting new broadcasting policies along with all the programs that I put forward to the consortium that haven't been pursued yet. However once the consortium is on the air, you're going to have a major job to accomplish. The biggest problem is the fact that the consortium is too big and too spread out to manage as it is. You'll need to pick a new headquarters and establish yourselves there. It also means downsizing your work force. With only one network broadcasting you will not need so many workers. For now I just want you to identify people who share the dream of a better future on your world, focusing of course on the people who have the skills to manage the network. I'm not at a point to start firing people yet, but it will happen. Hopefully when it does, I will have other jobs for them to step into and we won't be just shelving them in apartments like your previous government did. My goal is to rebuild your world so that the idea of exploiting other worlds will die out. I want it to be replaced by values that call people to work and to sacrifice for better days than they have right now."

"We'll do it my lord," Sydney White declared with confidence. "You can rely on us."

"Also note," I told both of them firmly, refusing to respond to the man's declaration, "who might not share the same beliefs or values as me. Understandably there will be opposition to the changes that I want to implement. I won't tolerate that at all, although I will be merciful to those who only speak about the changes and I won't punish them. I will however punish anyone who tries to reverse what I am doing. I will assure you now that anyone who actively attempts to hinder the changes will be teleported to Game World and depending on their actions, they will either end up a new participant on Game World, running from a hungry dinosaur in Patagonia or as a slave being sold in the markets of Thebes. Is that understood?"

"Yes my lord," both replied with solemn looks upon their faces and rapidly nodding heads.

"Good," I responded, "then go and do as I asked."

With that matter dealt with it was time that I prepared myself for the final push on the other Earth. I went down to the great hall and met with my people one last time before departing. I was glad I had. The place was a hive of activity and it looked different from what I had seen only a little while before. To my amazement there were large crates of unknown origin stacked neatly up against the main front wall of the hall and there were people unloading them under the watchful eye of Felicity. From what I could determine, the items looked like medical supplies.

"What's this?" I asked as I walked over to where Felicity was seated. She was sitting in a very comfortable looking chair and she had a blanket wrapped about her. In her hands she held a tablet and a stylus and she was checking things off on the tablet as people pulled them out of the crates.

"Supplies," Felicity stated in a matter of fact manner, her face lighting up with a broad smile as she said it. "While you were off talking to Angela and Sydney, I had a chat with Elsa about how close things were today and the fact that we were running out of everything that we needed to fight the bastards on the other Earth. Then out of the blue I had a great idea and Elsa agreed with me and this is the result of it."

"And what might I ask was that great idea, my sweet," I asked, giving Felicity a serious look that caused her to sigh.

"Let it be Charles," she told me sternly. "We know that you don't want us teleporting in any more people from other Earths to help out here and we're all in agreement with you. However, you've never mentioned anything about a little 'five-finger shopping', so with the help of Richards on the other Earth, that's what we've done here."

"You stole this stuff," I squawked with surprise, glancing towards the stacked crates.

"Yes and no," Felicity said to me. "It was more like we salvaged them from places that no longer needed them. One of the big differences between the teleportation complex on the other world and the one at the resort is the fact that the facilities on the other Earth have access to a massive databank of information. Richards scanned that databank registry and he identified several worlds where the population had been decimated by some tragedy. He then located one where the technical level was equivalent to mine. Once that was done he just dispatched a bunch of probes to that world and when he found what I wanted, he started teleporting it here. It was actually simple and it only took him a matter of minutes."

"Okay," I said glancing once more at the stacked crates, and staring at it thoughtfully, "and no one will miss it."

"Not at all Charles," Felicity told me with confidence. "The world we're taking it from was devastated by a pandemic of bird flu and less than one percent of their population has survived. Those that have are scattered in small clusters of two or three individuals and by the time any of them get organized enough to find a use for these supplies, their shelf life will have expired. Oh and just to let you know, Elsa had Richards locate that world's military stores as well and she's been mining it as well. You'll find that out once you get to the resort."

I stood there dumbfounded for a second and just blinked in response. Felicity chuckled on seeing my reaction and then she reached out and grabbed hold of my hand. With a tug she pulled me down and then she kissed me tenderly on the lips. Willingly I went to her.

"Smile Charles," Felicity told me when we broke our embrace, "and be happy that you married some smart women. We're just looking after your interest you know."

I did know and I told her so. I kissed her once more, this time good-bye and then I went and said my farewells to my other mates. I kissed and hugged Asana and Samira and I told them to keep a good eye on things there in Oak Hall. I kissed Caitlin tenderly and held her for a moment or two, the whole time promising her that I would be careful and that I would look after Rory for her. My young mate wanted to go with me but her head injury was still bothering her. After that I located the communications centre that Elsa had set up and I had them contact the resort so I could be teleported there.