Post by mercuryman on May 22, 2010 1:18:53 GMT -5
Radomir Akzerian, (age 54) at the present time (3537) is President of the Akzerian government.
Enjoy.
* * *
Year 3508
Age 25
"One minute." Said his father, turning to his right to look through the Node's thick window pane and into the bespeckled, deep blackness of space.
Radomir looked at Natasha, who had been doing the same. She returned his gaze and smiled, a soft, warm smile.
Ah, but she is such a precious thing.. Radomir thought to himself. Precious, beautiful, innocent.
He held out his hands and Natasha's soft, dawning smile came into full view: a dazzling flash of white, a girlish face shining with the youthful joy of first love.
Radomir felt his chest tighten as Natasha stepped forward and into his arms, an intoxicating, subtle blend of soft perfumes swept over him. He closed his eyes and breathed in her presence.
This here was surely the meaning of life...
They stayed that way a moment. Time seemed to slow down and stop.. There was no sense of self, or of the outside world.. only the sensation of one another; complete, content, perfect.
"Radomir.. Natasha.." Radomir's father gently awakened the two from their reverie. "It's here.. look."
The two turned to gaze out the window, still holding each other close. Outside, from the right side of the view port, a grey metallic shape was coming into view.
This was The Avant II. Centuries after original colony ship, The Avant, had crashed-landed upon Avantasia - whereby it delivered its surviving human cargo into a new phase of life - centuries later.. the resurgent human race had once again constructed its like.
This new Avant was smaller and far less sophisticated - there was still so much about Solarian technology that defied understanding - but it was a hugely significant achievement nonetheless.
Sixteen years in the making, The Avant II was here and ready at last. Now it would conduct a sweeping pass by Orbital City in a final gesture of farewell before the ship and its inhabitants set off to populate a new planet of the Avantasian star system.
Millions had flocked to Orbital City to witness the spectacle. The great armoured window-guards that covered the vulnerable view ports of Orbital City's many nodes, were rolled back wide, to enable all to get a glimpse in the flesh, of a space-borne human monument.
Radomir and Natasha gazed out in quiet awe. A vast fleet of other spacecraft, of extraordinary diversity in shape and size, metallic hulls all glinting in the light of the Avantasian Star, accompanied the Avant II on its Orbital City pass.
The Colony ship dwarfed them all. Radomir spotted an Akzerian Cruiser, looming large within the entourage, yet which in turn could be no more than a hundredth of the Avant II's mass and size.
The Avant II and its flowing river of companion spacecraft floated by, a parade showcasing human industrial might, that seemed like it would never end.
Finally, though, the rear of the Avant II came into view, gargantuan engines further inflating the back end of the craft, their exhaust a glowing trail of blue.
"This is what life is all about, son." Said Radomir's father. Radomir silently agreed, though he was thinking as much of Natasha as of the Avant II.
"We must forever grow." Continued his father. "Why? At this time we don't wholly know.. But what we know, is that we must forever grow."
Radomir's father watched the Avant II as slowly passed from view.
"That ship will birth a new human planet. We will then be twice as safe from whatever out there may threaten our survival. And from whomever among us threaten the same."
For the first time in months, Radomir thought of Caliban.. the blackened wreckage that remained.
"Remember that, Radomir. One day I will be gone. This will then will be your task."
Radomir nodded, but in truth he could not imagine such a day. He did not want to, either. Life now, was as he always wanted it to be.
He turned back to Natasha, wrapped her more tightly in his arms and closed his eyes..
* * *
Year 3533
Age 39
His father sighed, a long, drawn out exhalation of breath, whose fading sound heralded the end of the Akzerian President's life.
Radomir squeezed his father's hand, but there was no response. The man lay still at last. His aged, but dignified features set into their final expression. He looked content.
Tears came at last.. Radomir blinked them back, swallowed.
The med-tech placed a hand upon Radomir's shoulder.
"He's gone, son."
Radomir nodded. It had been expected for some months, now.. It still hurt.
Only a year ago his mother had passed away. Of all life's tribulations, the warfare, the cut-throat politics, the pressure of maintaining power.. It was that, the death of the First Lady Akzerian, which for the first time subdued the Presidents fierce heart.
After that, he had changed.. Radomir's father became more withdrawn, quieter.. Then grew sick. The speed at which his health declined made clear the fact that the man himself, at heart, now wished to die. He would never surrender life directly, of course, and maintained his duties to the last. Nevertheless, all knew he wanted to follow his long time love into eternal rest.
Radomir closed his eyes..
The mantle of power now settled upon his shoulders.
A moment passed. Radomir realised the Med-Tech now waited upon him, to make the next decision. Already, things were changing..
Without opening his eyes, Radomir spoke to the Med-Tech.
"See to it that all due rites are performed, that all conditions are met."
"I will do so... Mr President." Replied the Med-tech, before turning away.
Mr. President... That would take some getting used to.
Radomir stood and walked to the entrance of the room.. He turned then, looked back for the last time, to see his father's face. He studied it carefully, to preserve the scene in vivid memory.
Radomir sighed.. and left.
* * *
(Same year)
All around him, people rose from their seats and began to applaud. The Amphitheatre erupted and then reverberated with the sound. Radomir cast a panoramic gaze about the interior of the giant building. These were his people now.. Most were allies, many were enemies.. very few were friends.
The applause continued for a few more seconds. Radomir was extraordinarily conscious of being under greater public scrutiny than at any other moment of his life. He maintained his impassive expression.
The noise died away, people returned to their seats. The inauguration was now officially complete. The Akzerian dynasty prevailed, with a new President.
Radomir spoke.
"Thank you." He began. "Long has life prepared me for this day. I am ready. So be ready, for me. We all have great works to do, great obstacles to overcome, great questions of our own humanity.. to answer."
He paused.
"Yet I am full of confidence. I am brimming with hope.. and optimism, for the future.. Why? .. It is because we, the Avantasian people... are a great civilization."
Once again, the air shook with the sound of applause.
Radomir held out his arms, encompassing the room and all beyond it.
"Look around us! ..We are surrounded by evidence of our past success. We are encouraged by the enduring monuments of our forebears."
He lowered his arms.
"Let us build on that success. Let us be courageous and so encourage the future of success.. our children's success."
More applause.
"I begin this work now. And so must you. So must we all. Thank you, all of you. Thank you."
Radomir inclined his head in deference to his audience, then began to back away to the loudest and greatest applause yet. He inclined his head once more in acknowledgement, then turned and left the chamber, his entourage - and the thunderous roar of his assembled people, following him down the hall.
* * *
Year 3539
Age 45
The Avantasian Star broke the horizon and illuminated the scene below in a dull reddish tint. Radomir gritted his teeth. It was becoming all too familiar. Wreckage was strewn across this entire level, halfway up Zheckshan City.
Another Network assault had been stifled, but at great cost. Smoke wafted up into the artificial atmosphere from isolated, but numerous spot fires. Bodies could be seen littering the ground between bits of twisted and burning machine.
A sub commander, having just received a message via an earpiece, spoke to Radomir.
"Mr President, 2nd Division has captured a number of Network prisoners. They're in bad shape, but we should be able to keep them alive."
"Good." Radomir felt a surge of anger at the thought of confronting the prisoners up close.
Did these bastards not understand the cost of all this? The human cost, above all, was horrific.
The fools, driven and deluded by their naive and wholly impractical notion of 'freedom.' Their idea of freedom wasn't freedom, it was chaos. Freedom in this world was a myth.
This civilization NEEDS laws, it needs rules. Without them, all that has been built will eventually disintegrate.
Radomir was never going to allow that to happen.
For the prisoners, being doomed to the Panoptikon would be a just consequence for propagating such ignorant violence.
Either they would break under the Panoptikon's psychological pressures and so, in years time, emerge as people with a new outlook, a rehabilitated appreciation of lawful society... or else, if the programme did not take, they would exist in a nightmarish limbo, a terrible, haunting fusion of confinement and hallucinated horrors.
Right now, Radomir preferred they suffered the latter fate.
He surveyed the destruction. The only positive here was the efficiency with which his Enforcers and their supporting units had crushed the Network assault.
Those boys were d**ned good. One corner of Radomir's mouth curled up in a partial smile. He remembered his own days in the Enforcer Academy, the extreme hardship, the training ... and finally, the satisfaction of having conquered it all, having emerged mentally and physically a superior being to the child that had entered training, years earlier.
He knew he could rely on the Enforcers, because he was one of them. To all else, he was The Akzerian President. To the Enforcers, he was from their own flock, a leader born of a proud and powerful culture.
Yet even they were not always able to prevent such scenes as these. Radomir scowled again.
They needed better intelligence.. He'd have to initiate a program to scale up their covert operational ability.
He sighed. More work.. There was nothing but work. Thoughts, images of Natasha came suddenly into his mind.
Ahh Natasha... Radomir sighed again. She hurt.. she missed him. He knew that Natasha knew at an intellectual level his people must come first, for Radomir... but it was still hard.
Duty..
Thoughts of his father, dignified in all things, even in death, followed.
There was a lot to live up to.. Much had already been accomplished.. yet at the same time, with the Network's rise, much was being torn down, too.
Tough times were ahead.
Well, Radomir would handle it. He handled everything, eventually. A last image came into his mind, this one of Caliban.
A pang of loss and sorrow went through him. How he missed that robot.. For Radomir - Natasha aside - Caliban had been his only true friend, the only friend who didn't' care who he was, what he was.. A sad thought.
Such was the nature of Akzerian life..
He stared out over the smoking ruin of the level for a few more moments.
Behind him, the sub commander coughed, politely.
Radomir came out of his reverie.. he steeled himself for what lay ahead.
One day at a time, he told himself.. Each day was a fresh challenge.. to tackle life any other way would drive a man in his position insane.
The president turned and nodded to the sub commander.. and walked away.
Enjoy.
* * *
Year 3508
Age 25
"One minute." Said his father, turning to his right to look through the Node's thick window pane and into the bespeckled, deep blackness of space.
Radomir looked at Natasha, who had been doing the same. She returned his gaze and smiled, a soft, warm smile.
Ah, but she is such a precious thing.. Radomir thought to himself. Precious, beautiful, innocent.
He held out his hands and Natasha's soft, dawning smile came into full view: a dazzling flash of white, a girlish face shining with the youthful joy of first love.
Radomir felt his chest tighten as Natasha stepped forward and into his arms, an intoxicating, subtle blend of soft perfumes swept over him. He closed his eyes and breathed in her presence.
This here was surely the meaning of life...
They stayed that way a moment. Time seemed to slow down and stop.. There was no sense of self, or of the outside world.. only the sensation of one another; complete, content, perfect.
"Radomir.. Natasha.." Radomir's father gently awakened the two from their reverie. "It's here.. look."
The two turned to gaze out the window, still holding each other close. Outside, from the right side of the view port, a grey metallic shape was coming into view.
This was The Avant II. Centuries after original colony ship, The Avant, had crashed-landed upon Avantasia - whereby it delivered its surviving human cargo into a new phase of life - centuries later.. the resurgent human race had once again constructed its like.
This new Avant was smaller and far less sophisticated - there was still so much about Solarian technology that defied understanding - but it was a hugely significant achievement nonetheless.
Sixteen years in the making, The Avant II was here and ready at last. Now it would conduct a sweeping pass by Orbital City in a final gesture of farewell before the ship and its inhabitants set off to populate a new planet of the Avantasian star system.
Millions had flocked to Orbital City to witness the spectacle. The great armoured window-guards that covered the vulnerable view ports of Orbital City's many nodes, were rolled back wide, to enable all to get a glimpse in the flesh, of a space-borne human monument.
Radomir and Natasha gazed out in quiet awe. A vast fleet of other spacecraft, of extraordinary diversity in shape and size, metallic hulls all glinting in the light of the Avantasian Star, accompanied the Avant II on its Orbital City pass.
The Colony ship dwarfed them all. Radomir spotted an Akzerian Cruiser, looming large within the entourage, yet which in turn could be no more than a hundredth of the Avant II's mass and size.
The Avant II and its flowing river of companion spacecraft floated by, a parade showcasing human industrial might, that seemed like it would never end.
Finally, though, the rear of the Avant II came into view, gargantuan engines further inflating the back end of the craft, their exhaust a glowing trail of blue.
"This is what life is all about, son." Said Radomir's father. Radomir silently agreed, though he was thinking as much of Natasha as of the Avant II.
"We must forever grow." Continued his father. "Why? At this time we don't wholly know.. But what we know, is that we must forever grow."
Radomir's father watched the Avant II as slowly passed from view.
"That ship will birth a new human planet. We will then be twice as safe from whatever out there may threaten our survival. And from whomever among us threaten the same."
For the first time in months, Radomir thought of Caliban.. the blackened wreckage that remained.
"Remember that, Radomir. One day I will be gone. This will then will be your task."
Radomir nodded, but in truth he could not imagine such a day. He did not want to, either. Life now, was as he always wanted it to be.
He turned back to Natasha, wrapped her more tightly in his arms and closed his eyes..
* * *
Year 3533
Age 39
His father sighed, a long, drawn out exhalation of breath, whose fading sound heralded the end of the Akzerian President's life.
Radomir squeezed his father's hand, but there was no response. The man lay still at last. His aged, but dignified features set into their final expression. He looked content.
Tears came at last.. Radomir blinked them back, swallowed.
The med-tech placed a hand upon Radomir's shoulder.
"He's gone, son."
Radomir nodded. It had been expected for some months, now.. It still hurt.
Only a year ago his mother had passed away. Of all life's tribulations, the warfare, the cut-throat politics, the pressure of maintaining power.. It was that, the death of the First Lady Akzerian, which for the first time subdued the Presidents fierce heart.
After that, he had changed.. Radomir's father became more withdrawn, quieter.. Then grew sick. The speed at which his health declined made clear the fact that the man himself, at heart, now wished to die. He would never surrender life directly, of course, and maintained his duties to the last. Nevertheless, all knew he wanted to follow his long time love into eternal rest.
Radomir closed his eyes..
The mantle of power now settled upon his shoulders.
A moment passed. Radomir realised the Med-Tech now waited upon him, to make the next decision. Already, things were changing..
Without opening his eyes, Radomir spoke to the Med-Tech.
"See to it that all due rites are performed, that all conditions are met."
"I will do so... Mr President." Replied the Med-tech, before turning away.
Mr. President... That would take some getting used to.
Radomir stood and walked to the entrance of the room.. He turned then, looked back for the last time, to see his father's face. He studied it carefully, to preserve the scene in vivid memory.
Radomir sighed.. and left.
* * *
(Same year)
All around him, people rose from their seats and began to applaud. The Amphitheatre erupted and then reverberated with the sound. Radomir cast a panoramic gaze about the interior of the giant building. These were his people now.. Most were allies, many were enemies.. very few were friends.
The applause continued for a few more seconds. Radomir was extraordinarily conscious of being under greater public scrutiny than at any other moment of his life. He maintained his impassive expression.
The noise died away, people returned to their seats. The inauguration was now officially complete. The Akzerian dynasty prevailed, with a new President.
Radomir spoke.
"Thank you." He began. "Long has life prepared me for this day. I am ready. So be ready, for me. We all have great works to do, great obstacles to overcome, great questions of our own humanity.. to answer."
He paused.
"Yet I am full of confidence. I am brimming with hope.. and optimism, for the future.. Why? .. It is because we, the Avantasian people... are a great civilization."
Once again, the air shook with the sound of applause.
Radomir held out his arms, encompassing the room and all beyond it.
"Look around us! ..We are surrounded by evidence of our past success. We are encouraged by the enduring monuments of our forebears."
He lowered his arms.
"Let us build on that success. Let us be courageous and so encourage the future of success.. our children's success."
More applause.
"I begin this work now. And so must you. So must we all. Thank you, all of you. Thank you."
Radomir inclined his head in deference to his audience, then began to back away to the loudest and greatest applause yet. He inclined his head once more in acknowledgement, then turned and left the chamber, his entourage - and the thunderous roar of his assembled people, following him down the hall.
* * *
Year 3539
Age 45
The Avantasian Star broke the horizon and illuminated the scene below in a dull reddish tint. Radomir gritted his teeth. It was becoming all too familiar. Wreckage was strewn across this entire level, halfway up Zheckshan City.
Another Network assault had been stifled, but at great cost. Smoke wafted up into the artificial atmosphere from isolated, but numerous spot fires. Bodies could be seen littering the ground between bits of twisted and burning machine.
A sub commander, having just received a message via an earpiece, spoke to Radomir.
"Mr President, 2nd Division has captured a number of Network prisoners. They're in bad shape, but we should be able to keep them alive."
"Good." Radomir felt a surge of anger at the thought of confronting the prisoners up close.
Did these bastards not understand the cost of all this? The human cost, above all, was horrific.
The fools, driven and deluded by their naive and wholly impractical notion of 'freedom.' Their idea of freedom wasn't freedom, it was chaos. Freedom in this world was a myth.
This civilization NEEDS laws, it needs rules. Without them, all that has been built will eventually disintegrate.
Radomir was never going to allow that to happen.
For the prisoners, being doomed to the Panoptikon would be a just consequence for propagating such ignorant violence.
Either they would break under the Panoptikon's psychological pressures and so, in years time, emerge as people with a new outlook, a rehabilitated appreciation of lawful society... or else, if the programme did not take, they would exist in a nightmarish limbo, a terrible, haunting fusion of confinement and hallucinated horrors.
Right now, Radomir preferred they suffered the latter fate.
He surveyed the destruction. The only positive here was the efficiency with which his Enforcers and their supporting units had crushed the Network assault.
Those boys were d**ned good. One corner of Radomir's mouth curled up in a partial smile. He remembered his own days in the Enforcer Academy, the extreme hardship, the training ... and finally, the satisfaction of having conquered it all, having emerged mentally and physically a superior being to the child that had entered training, years earlier.
He knew he could rely on the Enforcers, because he was one of them. To all else, he was The Akzerian President. To the Enforcers, he was from their own flock, a leader born of a proud and powerful culture.
Yet even they were not always able to prevent such scenes as these. Radomir scowled again.
They needed better intelligence.. He'd have to initiate a program to scale up their covert operational ability.
He sighed. More work.. There was nothing but work. Thoughts, images of Natasha came suddenly into his mind.
Ahh Natasha... Radomir sighed again. She hurt.. she missed him. He knew that Natasha knew at an intellectual level his people must come first, for Radomir... but it was still hard.
Duty..
Thoughts of his father, dignified in all things, even in death, followed.
There was a lot to live up to.. Much had already been accomplished.. yet at the same time, with the Network's rise, much was being torn down, too.
Tough times were ahead.
Well, Radomir would handle it. He handled everything, eventually. A last image came into his mind, this one of Caliban.
A pang of loss and sorrow went through him. How he missed that robot.. For Radomir - Natasha aside - Caliban had been his only true friend, the only friend who didn't' care who he was, what he was.. A sad thought.
Such was the nature of Akzerian life..
He stared out over the smoking ruin of the level for a few more moments.
Behind him, the sub commander coughed, politely.
Radomir came out of his reverie.. he steeled himself for what lay ahead.
One day at a time, he told himself.. Each day was a fresh challenge.. to tackle life any other way would drive a man in his position insane.
The president turned and nodded to the sub commander.. and walked away.