Hugh Cook - The Worshippers and the Way

While Hatch was choosing his breakfast, his daughter Onica entered the room, his wife Talanta with her.

"Talanta," said Hatch.

But neither wife nor daughter responded. They would not so much as acknowledge his existence. As for the Lady Iro Murasaki – there was no sign of her.

So Hatch, feeling himself a de facto widower, went to sit with the beggars. Lord X'dex was eating a bowl of tofu, and seemed to be acquiring a liking for the stuff, a phenomenon which Hatch thought truly remarkable. Every time Hatch saw tofu, he was glad he had not been born and bred in the Nexus, for by all accounts tofu had been one of the staple foods of that transcosmic civilization. Tofu was fabricated from soya beans. The beans themselves Hatch knew well – in fact, he often ate roast soya beans by the handful. But something truly dreadful must have been done to those beans to make that tofu stuff.

"Why so grim, so silent?" said Beggar Grim.

Hatch told him.

Hatch laid out his problems, upon which Grim laughed.

"Lupus is just a wasp," said Beggar Grim. "Trap him in a bottle then drown him."

Hatch, who was not prepared to sit still for any more such nonsense, scraped down the last of his breakfast, then rose from the table and burped his way back to his room. Hatch seated himself and the hot weight of his over-generous breakfast in front of his room's display screen, activated that screen, and found Paraban Senk waiting for him.

"Well?" said Senk. "What's your plan?"

"I'll tell you soon," said Hatch. "But first, we need an agreement."

"We?" said Senk, sounding amused.

"We both have a vested interest in stability," said Hatch, doing his best imitation of a bureaucrat. "Therefore, it is in our mutual interest to ensure that no further killings take place in Dalar ken Halvar. To this end, we need to give sanctuary to those refugees who are currently sheltering in the Combat College."

Senk laughed.

"It's not that easy, Asodo," said Senk. "If you can give me a plan for bringing order to Dalar ken Halvar, then I'll give refuge to your wife, your daughter – and even your whore."

"The Lady Murasaki is not – "

"A plan, Hatch!" said Senk, switching abruptly from personal name to family name, from softness to harshness.

Hatch was taken aback. In the whiplash of Senk's demand, in the abruptness of the mood-shift, there was something positively glandular.

"A plan!" said Senk.

Pushing.

Demanding.

"I don't have a plan," admitted Hatch.

"Of course you do!" said Senk. "I know it for a fact."

"How do you know that?" said Hatch.

"Because you're a genius," said Senk. "You murdered Hiji Hanojo and got away with it. It was years before I worked out that it was you! And you – you outfought Lon Oliver when everything said it was impossible. I know you've got a plan, Hatch. And I want it. Now!"

Hatch, knowing himself to be no murderer – an executioner on occasion, yes, but he had never stooped to murder, and certainly had never laid a finger on Hiji Hanojo – took no comfort in this vote of confidence in his genius.

"Have you considered the possibility that you might be going senile?" said Hatch.

"I am flawless," said Senk. "Perfect in an imperfect world."

"Then tell me, oh perfect master," said Hatch, so weary that he was reckless enough to taunt the lord of the Combat College with sarcasm, "what vision of perfection do we wish to impose upon this imperfect world? Tell me what you want and I will deliver it."

"You promised me the service of Nu-chala-nuth," said Senk.

"You promised. You promised to make the Combat College a temple, a holy place, with the whole of the city sworn in subservience to that temple. It's breaking down, Hatch! The things are breaking down! The doors, the cleaners, we can't keep them up forever. We need power, machines, a mending, a cleansing. But with Plandruk Qinplaqus, that's impossible, any bright person – he kills them."

"I understand," said Hatch.

He did understand.

Hatch was right in his earlier assumptions. The Combat College was disintegrating, and Paraban Senk knew as much – even though it was hard to admit.

Hatch had tempted Senk with the prospect of a continent united by a fanatical religion – a continent dedicated to the service of the Combat College. Hatch had been thinking in terms of the mission to which the Combat College was dedicated: the training of startroopers. But Senk was concerned with something more compelling: personal survival.

From the few words which Senk had spoken, Hatch saw that Paraban Senk envisioned a technical renaissance centered on Dalar ken Halvar, a technical renaissance which would in time allow the Combat College to be repaired, strengthened and made mighty.

In the past, Plandruk Qinplaqus, the Silver Emperor who had long ruled Dalar ken Halvar, had organized the covert execution of any mad scientist fool enough to attempt to organize any such thing.

But in the future – Hatch shook off thoughts of the future. He had to deal with Lon Oliver first. But how?

What did the beggar say?

A wasp, that was it. Beggar Grim had compared Lupus Lon Oliver to a wasp. And had suggested… trapping him in a bottle then drowning him.

"I can give you the city," said the Hatch slowly. "But you must do as I say."

"Speak," said Senk.

And Asodo Hatch took a deep breath, paused, hesitated, realized he had to breathe again, did so, then said:

"You must tell the world that the Chasm Gates have been reopened."

Hatch's problem: to seize control of Dalar ken Halvar, a city where rightful authority has been overthrown in a coup led by the Free Corps in combination with officers of the Imperial Guard.

Hatch can count on no support from his own people, for his blasphemous embracement of Nu-chala-nuth will surely have alienated most of the inhabitants of the Frangoni rock.

His sole ally in this enterprise is Paraban Senk, the Teacher of Control, the asma which rules the Combat College. This intelligent artefact of Nexus make is locked into the heartrock of Cap Foz Para Lash, with no means of projecting authority into the outside world save through the Eye of Delusions, the entertainment screen set above the lockway in the natural amphitheater at the southern end of Scuffling Road.

Wavered then, and then -

Unwavering, fell.

His blade to greet the body, and his cry Wrenched not from his flesh but from his son's.

"I must what!?" said Paraban Senk.

"You must tell the world that the Chasm Gates have been reopened," said Hatch. "You must tell them that we are reunited with the Nexus."

"How does this help us?" said Senk.

"Isn't it simple?" said Hatch. "The Chasm Gates open, thus restoring communications with the Nexus. You announce that all Startroopers are required for immediate service. All of them.

Those trained, those in training. Even old reservists like Manfred Gan Oliver. They – "

"What makes you think they'll believe this?"

"Senk, they'll love it! They live for this! It's the stuff of dreams! When Lupus has wetdreams, he's in bed with the Nexus. His father's no better. Their lives, the Free Corps – the whole thing is nine-tenths fantasy. They're detached from reality. All we have to do is give them a fantasy, give them the Chasm Gates. We say the Gates are open, okay, they'll believe it. You call, they come.

It's that simple. When they venture inside, you lock them up."

"What!" said Senk. "Lock them up!?"

"Yes, yes," said Hatch, getting enthusiastic. "Lock them up.

Easy. That's it. All over. All of them are prisoners. So no more Free Corps."

"Hatch," said Senk, "the people you're talking about are people I've trained for the Nexus. We're talking about Startroopers. We can't keep them, can't hold them, can't – "