Chapter 21: HEL

I brushed the last crumbs of dirt onto the dust pan and got up to look around. The basement area was clean! The stone floor patched with Duro-crete were the rot was so bad it actually had crumbled stone. The walls scrubbed with disinfectant and the few small windows now glazed and clean. The big Recycler was turned off and pushed to one wall. The small Nanite Unit was more than adequate to take care of the Old man’s trash every day. By now I was well equipped. I had shovels and brooms and wheelbarrows. Even a small aluminum framed Conveyor belt system that could be placed in segments nearly everywhere.

“You should forget about your idea becoming a Star ship Captain and start a cleaning business.” The Old man croaked as he came down the stair and saw me standing there.

“I think you did it too fast. You’re done cleaning and I am still here.”

“Well maybe you can start training me now? I am going to be Fifteen soon and by this time next year. Elders having time for me or not, I am going to be Sixteen and challenge that Monster in my burg.”

“I am already training you, if you do not like my methods then find another Old Geezer.”

“I had about enough of Old Geezers in my life. I would prefer a strong younger man or perhaps even a nice looking woman as a teacher for a while.”

I only was that bold because he was talking that way all the time to me and I sort of started to do the same. Since he could read my mind I was certain he knew I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful.

“No you haven’t been disrespectful, but you are not thinking again! What could a young man teach you? If raw knowledge you seek. Go upload a book into your brain, no teacher needed. Age is what gives you a different prospective on things and it allows you to gather experience. Now that is what a teacher is trying to pass on to a student. When it comes to experienced teachers, Eric, you have been very fortunate and lucky.”

I wanted to tell him something about my rotten luck and that the word fortunate did not go along with my life, but I stopped. I did have great teachers. The Ancient One at Hasvik, Sigfrida, Carl and Richard, not to forget Uncle Hogun. They all went out of their way to teach me and try to help me in their own way.

I think it was the first time I ever seen him smile.” Very good, Eric! You learned one important lesson I tried to make you see. I don’t need to teach you how to fight. You are far beyond any 16 year old that ever stepped before the Elders already and knowing you, you pick a few more fights and experience on the way until you are sixteen yourself.”

He made a gesture around the now empty basement.” As you have seen yourself I don’t have all that many weapons and I could not teach you the things Richard or Carl has shown you or even improve on it. Yes I want you to continue and train and hone your skills, but that is not what I am teaching you.”

“It’s the Poems, right?”

“That’s part of the test and I made you learn them the old way. You could have uploaded the entire Book of Edda and all the other Poem books in one sitting a day before the challenge like many others do.”

“That would be cheating though, wouldn’t it? I think it would be dishonorable for someone to be tested as a warrior and confirmed in the ancient ways to use Off World tricks. Now you know how I think about traditions in the first place, but I like hypocrites even less and I would not want to be one.”

“That speaks for you and I fail those who learned the poems the modern way, but I am usually outvoted by the others.”

“Would they not follow your lead?”

“The elders vote in secret if all Challenges were done in a satisfactory manner. There are almost 500 clans now and there are lots of sons every year turning sixteen and wanting to do the challenge. It is a ritual nowadays and everyone passes. The Elders don’t even really vote anymore they simply put their approval mark on the document.”

He then said. “It is a little different when the first born son of one of the Old clans takes the challenge and I guarantee you everyone will be there and looking when you take yours!”

I sighed. “I was afraid you say that.”

“Who knows what will happen till then, maybe your girlfriends killed all the old men by then and there won’t be another Challenge and you simply have to murder your father without the official approval of the elders you don’t like and the traditions you don’t want. Talk about being a Hypocrite. Look into the mirror before you accuse others!”

“I am not...”

He interrupted me almost yelling. “You are not? Yes you are! You want to take the Ancient Challenge, which is about as traditional and old fashioned as it gets, in order to challenge and then kill your father. Granted under our laws and the old traditions you dismiss so broad handed otherwise, you have the right for revenge and you have the right to kill. Only under the same local laws that protect him are you protected. Union law does not acknowledge Revenge or abuse or anything as an excuse for murder. Yet you don’t want him to be arrested under the Off-World-laws. You are as guilty as him! If you dismiss all our laws and traditions then you are guilty of killing the Steiner boy, never mind you didn’t really plan to do it. It doesn’t matter if a bunch of old men endorse and condone your deeds if you dismiss these old men as fools and self-serving. It however makes you a hypocrite by your own moral standards.”

His words felt like a blow to the stomach. His logic was inescapable, he was right! I applied two standards myself!

He was not done with me.” You are barley 15 now and you judged your own grandfather. In your mind he is already a greedy man who takes bribes and judge’s young men who want to open their own business unfairly. You accuse him of being guilty not to follow up on his own word and have Isegrim arrested. Compared to your grandfather you have barley left the womb of your mother and you judge him?”

His words hit me hard. He was right, as I looked inside myself. “But he could have kept his word!” I said meekly, somehow knowing that I made my judgment without knowing the entire story.

He calmed down and spoke less angry. “Exactly you do not know the entire story.”

“Do you know what would have happened if your Grandfather sent Union Police to Tyson Planet to arrest your Father for murder?”

“They would have arrested him and hung him!”

“Back and forth Eric, back and forth! One minute you actually use your brain and then you fall back in this stubborn child routine! You did not even think a second to answer that question.”

“I don’t know what would have happened.”

“Much better! Union Police doesn’t just arrest someone on the accusation of another person, and when it comes to the law, unlike our own system the Union takes it very, very serious. For example everyone is equal before the law. This was not always so, but ever since the Union was founded it is. That means your grandfather being a representative and all that important stuff has the same rights as your father and vice versa. You are assumed innocent until otherwise proven before a judge and jury. That means your father would not be hanged until the Union Police investigated and collected all evidence and listened to all witnesses.”

I listened and said. “I really like the idea of everyone being equal before the law.”

“That is what the Union is really about Eric. Not big space ships or humongous cities, but giving everyone the same chance and the same rights. That includes guaranteeing individuals freedoms and personal liberties. So the Union Police comes and investigates and they find that almost everyone on Nilfeheim has broken Union Laws and not just petty ones, but slavery, human rights violations, murder, rape to name a few of the top. So they have two options. Arrest every one, as we are all guilty of many violations or kick us out of the Union and Isolate Nilfeheim from the rest.”

“I didn’t think about all that. How would the Police find out?”

“Do you think your father would have gone quiet? He would have said that what he done was perfectly alright under Nilfeheim law! By doing that kicking loose an avalanche of accusations.”

I didn’t feel very good realizing how I had damned my Grandfather and I thought maybe I didn’t really know the entire story about the business man either. I promised myself to see things from more than one side before coming to a final judgment.

“It is a good resolution but I doubt it you will keep to it for long, but it is not entirely your fault. You are a teenager and there wasn’t a teenager alive since teenagers exist who didn’t think he was so much smarter than his elders and that everything old is automatically bad.”

“I wonder if I can do something right in your opinion.”

“Probably not much, but at least you realized it and that’s good. But back to your Elders. Before your Grandfather became representative. Did you ever ask who was there before him?”

“No I did not, but we are Union Members for almost 2000 years now, there had to be someone”

“Yes there were many of them. One of them was another one of your ancestors, Holger Ragnarsson. The one that sailed to the Union Outpost to complain about unfair representation, the use of energy weapons and all that, you know that part of the story as they decided on a Circle of Elders for the first time and all that, right?”

“Yes the Keepers made a point I know all this.”

“Holger Ragnarsson was the first representative more or less by default since he did represent the rest of the Planet and after he won his case before the Union court. He gave a famous speech before the Assembly.” He gestured to the ceiling. “I learned all this on your GalNet terminal over the past few days by the way! I did not know all this either.”

He cleared his throat. “Anyway, Holger said to the Assembly that they settled Nilfeheim to get away from the bad influence of technology and that the whole mess of piracy and the bloody one sided clan wars came about due to the uncontrolled use of technology. He did not reject Union help and Union Membership but he said Nilfeheim needs to have limited contact and time to grow. The Assembly was impressed gave him right made a note to keep us alone and they forgot us pretty much. We did receive our annual Union help shipment of basic food supplies and very basic non tech materials, that helped us to survive the Long Nights until we as a society learned how to cope with our planets long winters and sustain ourselves. After that we didn’t need help shipments and for the better part of those centuries we did not develop much and stayed the same and doing everything the old fashioned way,”

“I wondered what happened in all this time and why there was no real development. I mean other cultures develop space flight on their own in that time.”

“It did take us a long time to cope with the harsh conditions of Longnight and the fact that there isn’t enough land to really spread out and grow that also kept development at a snail’s pace.”

“What about the Union school it should have made an impact!”

“Yes it should have, but until about 400 years ago, there was one Union School and only the firstborn sons of clan Elders were allowed to go, and of those only a small number wanted to go.”

“What changed?”

“One clan Chief who did go to Union School ordered himself a Submarine about 500 years ago after he had read about them at school. He lost two of his sons in Tyranno Fin hunting accidents and argued that he won’t risk his third and last and that Tyranno Hunting in a sub was safer.”

The Old man tipped his head.” That man was my father by the way and I tell you the rest of our history now from firsthand experience.”

“I can guess what happened next.”

“Surprise me!”

“At first he used the Submarine to hunt but found out he could much easier use it to ask others to give up their catch and if not blow them out of the water. Others did the same, then someone decided to up the ante. I have a feeling that Submarine down there is the an answer to that escalation.”

“You did surprise me! Well done putting two and two together. However clan wars were outlawed after the last one. We then got an XChange and with it the first Union Credits and things went from there. Now things are changing a little faster and I fear that those who affect those changes don’t think things through and are as much in the dark as you about the consequences.”

“Where does this leave me?

“You judged your father. He is already sentenced to death! Oh I know if anyone deserves it, it is him, but even the worst criminal deserves a fair trial and all aspects should be looked upon before a death sentence is given. Death is awful final, Eric!”

I cried tears of shame as he spoke about grandfather but when he mentioned father my tears dried up. “You are correct in all you say, Old Man and I understand now what you mean when you tell me I should think, but there is no argument you can make to absolve my father. I am the eyewitness of his most foul deed. He killed my mother! All else I would forgive, not this! Even if it damns me to hell for eternity I will kill him!”

“Do you really know what you are saying? Do you know what hell is? You could not begin to understand what eternity means! I am four hundred years old and I don’t know. Your Ancient friend, the keeper managed to see almost 3000 years go by and I assure you he does not.”

“Do you say I have to abandon my quest for revenge? Forgive my father for all he did?”

“No Eric, I am saying to see things from all sides and then decide and if your revenge is worth messing up the rest of your life and thus give victory to your father. Eric. I promised your mother to teach you. She had a good idea what life had in store for you.” He waved angrily at my chest pocket. “You listen to your mother every night and yet you have not heard what she is saying: She asked me to teach you all the things about the rite of passage. She wanted me to share some of my wisdom with you, but you only want me to train you how to fight and compete. Why do you think I had you clean all this? Tell me!”

I suddenly had no answer. A second ago I would have said. Because he didn’t like me, or because the place needed it, but now I did not know.

He suddenly grinned again. “Yes the place needed it, badly so and I am actually thankful for you doing all this work, spending a considerable amount of your own money on cleaning supplies, vodka and all the other stuff. It cooled you down Eric. This mindless labor put some distance to your anger and it made you more open to listen to me. You cleaned for almost the entire three month you are here now and only now you begin to listen and to see me as something else as just a dirty old man living on top of a mountain of trash. I think you are ready now.”

He got up and walked towards the now easily accessible door that lead down to the old and now equally empty treasure chamber.

He opened it and said. “We can reach this darn door now without the risk of breaking our necks! Are you coming?”

I caught up with him as he was already halfway down the stairs, but this time it was not dark, the stair case was illuminated by a bright orange light and the torch he spoke of was floating before him, but it was no normal fire that burned it was simply a sphere of intense light.

“If you can fix your own body on a molecular level using Psionics, making light is actually quite easy.” He explained before I even finished thinking about it.

“Need more money? If you want to sell more Gold, there isn’t any left, but I said before I can share my Credits with you.”

“There is a small fortune sitting on the boat landing. I should have let you sell the plunder. We are going a little further down. I think you will notice that we are already past the old treasure chamber.”

As I followed him I became somewhat nervous. What if it was true and there really was a God down there? The old man’s powers were quite real and they did not call him Wizard for nothing as I had found out myself. If I understood him correctly then my Grandfather’s son, my uncle died down here and not crushed by a Tyranno as I had been told. Did I shovel the bones of my Uncle in the recycler?

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