Chapter 24

Incredibly sore, I limped back down to the council level where several met me at the access hatch.

"You're okay!" Teel gasped. She reached out and hugged me tightly. Vanessa lingered in the background, rocking a small bundle in her arms, and making soothing noises.

"Tamar?" Troyal enquired.

"He decided to pay a visit to the cultivation section," I joked weakly, looking back towards the maintenance shaft.

Troyal emitted a sigh of relief.

"He also murdered the Chamberlain who I found upstairs trying to coax some life out of one of the flyers."

"The one's that Sarek disabled?"

"Yes. Where is Sarek?"

"We left him in the nurturing centre, assessing the damage."

Teel interrupted, the baby now cuddled securely in her arms. "Look at your daughter, Mark. Isn't she beautiful?"

I looked down and smiled at the tiny face, seeing so many similarities to her namesake of two centuries earlier. "Hello, Angela," I cooed, taking possession of her for a moment, amazed at how little she weighed.

"Let's put you back in your cot," I told her, "you've had enough excitement for one day."

As we walked back towards the nurturing centre, Troyal informed me how they'd finally removed the lockdown, and that our forces were now slowly occupying the remaining levels of the citadel. All resistance had crumbled, once knowledge that the High Council had been detained.

"I insist on inspecting the damage," a familiar voice roared. Petrius strode purposefully along the corridor with one of the villagers lagging behind, unable to restrain him despite being heavily armed.

"Be my guest," I told him, relieving his anxious chaperone of further responsibility.

The nurturing centre was more or less how we'd left it. One of the gene-splicers had taken a direct hit from Tamar's heater, and the DNA storage column was reduced to slag, something that I hadn't notice earlier, in all my excitement.

Petrius sank to his knees, his life work in ruins. "NO!" he screamed. "This cannot be."

"I'm afraid so," Sarek informed him. "That lunatic Tamar tried to kill us all, and into the bargain, destroyed every sample of DNA. It's such a shame."

"What will we do?" Petrius cried. "This is the end."

"Of course it's not the end, you fool. The future is right behind you."

Petrius spun and took a few moments to realise Sarek referred to Teel's baby.

"No," Petrius gasped. "Not that, anything but that."

"You have little choice. The city dwellers will provide the necessary seed, until such time as today's children are old enough to start families. We will finally return to the values that served us well for hundreds of generations, before the Founders interfered."

"Take him back to the council chamber," I instructed.

Broken-hearted, Petrius allowed himself to be led away, with the others following close behind. I waited until Sarek and I were alone.

"I don't recall the DNA column being struck," I told him.

"It's very susceptible to damage, particularly from a concerted blast from a heater."

"I'm wondering if it might have had a little extra help."

"I've no idea what you're talking about." He grinned ruefully and departed.

A degree of order slowly returned to the citadel. In all, over a hundred people had perished during the hostilities, and twice as many again suffered serious injury. In order to partially reconcile his part in the conspiracy, Petrius was charged with helping the maimed and injured, growing skin grafts and rebuilding shattered bodies. It would be a long and arduous task that Sarek informed me would keep him out of mischief for the foreseeable future.

Grant suggested that in the interests of harmony, an amnesty should be granted to the council members, but they be barred from holding public office. By popular consent, Sarek chaired a new governing council, promising elections before the end of the year, once a charter was drawn up, affording basic rights to all.

Teams were already busy reconstructing the village of Frecken, with most of its inhabitants choosing to return once the work was complete. Those that preferred to remain in the citadel were allowed to do so. For the first time ever, people migrated freely back and forth, with several of the city dwellers deciding to take up temporary residence. Jeremy waited whilst Peter received treatment for his injuries, whilst Vanessa moved into Teel's old room, with baby Angela.

A small crowd gathered as I prepared to remove Nella from stasis. Teel fidgeted nervously, comforted by Vanessa. She and Vanessa were now deeply committed to one another, and she admitted to me that she didn't relish breaking the bad news to her former lover. I activated the coils and lifted the lid on the stasis pod, waiting several seconds before Nella's eyes flickered opened.

"Mark," she sighed. "You're alive."

"Don't move yet," I told her. "Let your strength return."

Petrius appeared momentarily and examined her, finally announcing that both mother and baby were in fine health, albeit a little drained by the experience. Teel sat beside Nella, and we left them a few moments alone together. A few minutes later, Teel walked away, tears flowing down her cheeks. Vanessa hugged her, and they returned to the nurturing centre to collect our daughter.

"How are you doing?" I asked Nella.

"Tired," she sniffed. "A little sad. I'm so happy for Teel, she deserves to find love."

"I'm sorry things worked out the way they did."

"So much has changed. Life will never be the same again."

"That's true."

"Sarek in charge. Who would have thought that?"

"Only until the elections."

"Who would dare stand against him?"

"It does seem like a foregone conclusion," I admitted.

"I'm sure he'll make a fantastic Chamberlain."

"He's talking about resurrecting the title of President. Chamberlain is something to be consigned to the past."

"What about you? What about our baby?" she asked.

"I don't know. I wish I did. I promise I'll be there to help you, but there are others that need my help too."

"Teel told me about your little adventures. How many children is it so far?"

"Four with yours," I confessed sheepishly, "Maybe even five soon, Teel is pregnant again."

"I don't want to commit to anybody," Nella admitted. "I just want to experience life, free from all the restrictions of before."

"It's certainly going to take some getting used to, for everybody."

After several weeks, the true extent of change began to be felt. People ventured forth from the citadel, taking extended walks around the surrounding countryside as though the bonds that tied them to their former home had been severed by recent events.

A memorial service was finally held for those lives lost in the conflict, with a cenotaph set on the hillside overlooking the citadel, its face inscribed with all the names of the fallen. A smaller replica sat in the centre of Frecken, a permanent reminder of the danger of too much centralised control, and a driving force for more local autonomy for the outlying settlements.

Many citadel women appeared anxious to try their hand at motherhood, and research was underway to attempt to reverse the surgical procedure that denied their partners the opportunity to father children.

Anticipating the growth in population, the villages were expanding rapidly in preparation to receive the overspill from the citadel. Migration between village and citadel was now controlled by a special committee that looked carefully at every couple's circumstances before assigning them a home. The villages were becoming much more hospitable as resources were allocated to improve the living conditions to almost the standard of the citadel.

Matthias abandoned the Manor and accepted the post of the citadel's chief scientist, replacing Drago who'd resigned the position and retired to a life devoted entirely to research. Carrie joined Matthias, and they continued to enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle, no longer fearing exposure.

Troyal knocked on the door of my apartment. "The flyer's fuelled and ready," he informed me.

I nodded and accompanied him to the hangar bay. Nella was there to see us off. She hugged us both goodbye, but lingered slightly longer with Troyal.

"What's with you and Nella?" I asked as we launched, and then headed south.

"I've always had an eye on her," he confessed. "She needs someone to be there for her, and I can think of nothing that I want more."

"I'm happy for you." I told him truthfully.

"The baby will be born in a month. Petrius tells me it's a boy."

"Congratulations."

"It's yours."

"I know that. I'll enjoy watching him grow up, but it'll be up to you to raise him."

Troyal smiled and turned the flyer onto its heading, its final destination dictated by the information that I'd gleaned from Grant about the location of the Avalon facility.

After admitting his drift into late middle-age, Grant had agreed to Vanessa's request for him to spend the winter months in the citadel to avoid the bad weather, and also share some time with her and her family.

The dingy conditions of the multi-storey car park held no great appeal to anyone anymore and, other than a few diehards, was now mostly abandoned. Most had migrated to the villages, while others had moved farther afield, and set up smallholdings where they grew enough food to sustain themselves.

With the flyer fleet at their disposal, people were expanding outwards, and Sarek hypothesised that within a couple of generations, the entire country would be repopulated once more, although nothing like to the extent that it was before the Calamity.